Starbound - Shadows from the Abyss
by Zebeeb
Summary: The time before the Earth was destroyed was glorious and plentiful. But not for every human. Intergalactic crime thrived in the depths of space, among other nameless threats. Two friends face a terrifying challenge, a mystery from the shadows. Downfall of humanity is imminent, and failure means death. Choices must be made, but is there anyone capable to do them?
1. Up is Down

_There is something wrong with this corridor_, he thought to himself.

He was sure it wasn't the debris left behind after excessive use of firearms and lasers. Clearly, it wasn't laying bodies of humans, glitches and avians either. It wasn't the dust, blood and smoke that had filled the space station after USCM and various smuggler and criminal alliances had plunged into a battle with each other.

There was something _really_ wrong with the corridor. And he knew _exactly_ what it was.

In the exact center of the corridor, floating in mid-air, was a teapot decorated with pictures of blue flowers. He noticed that the teapot was looking surprisingly benevolent and peaceful, in contrast to the surrounding gore and mess. He jumped over few bodies, dodged a gaping hole in the floor and grabbed the teapot.

He waited a few seconds. Nothing happened.

There was some liquid in the teapot. It smelled familiar, it definitely had the same metallic scent as blood does. He knew it wasn't blood though, they sell this drink in the bar in this space station.

This space station isn't (or wasn't, considering the current state of it) a usual one. He, along with many others, called it a smuggler hole. Other more self-sufficient people call it with a more well-known name, "_The Hole_". The Hole was this system's hideout for criminal elite.  
For the most people in this star system The Hole is a legend, a fairy-tale that authorities spread to ensure people cling to these fighting factions even more tightly.

He had never liked this place. Every notable crime lord, scum and space pirate visit this space-station regularly in order to strengthen their influence in underworld. You'll never know when you might get a new enemy or bounty hunter after you.

But now there was something wrong, something unusual. USCM had found their hideout orbiting Mars a few hours ago. A violent shoot-out had ensued. He had been in many gunfights; in ships and stations, on planets and moons. This time, there had been something different.  
Now he knew what it might've been. It wasn't just this corridor, just this floating teapot, but the entire station that was affected by this odd phenomenon. He deduced that there was something wrong with the AGG, Artificial Gravity Generator.

_There is something wrong with gravity generator_, he thought to himself.

He carefully placed the teapot on the floor and headed towards engine rooms. However he didn't have a slightest idea where he was. He decided to try his luck, which wasn't a wise choice. His luck was not one of the better ones, to be completely honest.

Rusty floor creaked with every step. Lights were placed to the floor, not to ceiling, which he thought to be an interesting choice of design. There was nothing wrong in it though, he wasn't an expert in design stuff; it wasn't his job to complain.  
Soon enough he arrived in to a intersection of 3 corridors. Each of them was almost identical, thus he had no idea where to go. _Engine room_, he thought, _where are you?_

Sudden creak echoed from the left-side corridor. He had barely time to dodge incoming plasma projectile. He pulled a gun, turned around quickly and saw a gunman, presumably an avian pirate, at the end of the corridor. Like everywhere else, there was something wrong in that pirate, too. That space pirate was standing on the ceiling, upside-down.

As the situation couldn't get more absurd, there were no more shots fired. Both guns were out of ammo.  
He pulled out of his trusty sword, a gleaming silver blade, and dashed towards the pirate. Avian pirate did the same thing, only difference being his pathetic excuse of a sword.

While running he realized that the pirate wasn't actually running on the ceiling, he was.  
_That explains the lighting issue. There is DEFINITELY something wrong with gravity generator_.

Gravity changed somewhere in the middle of the corridor. He had few seconds to determine the spot.  
Space pirate wasn't as bright as he was. The pirate was also slower than him, pirate didn't even have time to strike when he sliced avian's arm off around elbow. He landed softly on floor, and the avian scum, his right arm, and a rusty pirate sword crashed to the ceiling.

Pirate didn't give up, though. Avian picked up his sword with his left arm, shouted a war cry, and attacked once more.


	2. Making Way

Pirate didn't hit the floor alive.

After examining the body he continued searching the engine room.

_I wonder if these corridors make any sense now that I'm not walking on the ceiling_, he smirked.  
He came in to a small room with red curtains. _Plasma pistols were used here_, he noticed from burnt holes in the curtains. There was few wine glasses shattered in the floor. A wooden table was fallen over; someone had tried to make a barricade out of it.

Wood wasn't the best choice against plasma guns, obviously. He found two dead bodies behind the destroyed table. Hylotls. They didn't even have any weapons to defend themselves. Why would one do such a thing?  
_It wasn't any scruffy pirate who did this, only military has guns that do such damage. Though there is not a big difference between military and pirates these days._

These Hylotls seemed to be important people here, probably crime lords running the business. It was the first time he saw a Hylotl doing that job. The exception proves the rule, it might be. _Very rich and important indeed_, he thought as he found an ID card attached to other's belt. _That might be handy_, he thought and took it from the corpse of its previous owner.

He walked out of the biggest door he could find. He saw a old, rusty sign hanging on the wall. The metallic sign told him the basic directions. Finally he knew where he was and where he should go next. Fastest route to the engine room would be through the storage. However, storage could be a mess now when gravity is messed up. Exit could be blocked.

_Worth of the risk. I should visit the lab soon. Davis might be in trouble, but I feel it's unlikely. People like him have tendency to survive, whatever the situation is. I should be going faster._

Left, right, left, down the stairs. Nothing of interest except few burned bodies. Door to the storage was locked, next to the door was a ID card scanner. He could've torn the door down easily, but he decided to try his newly-found ID card. He put the card to the scanner.  
Beep. Click. The door was open.

He entered to the massive storage. There were hundreds of bags and crates of all sizes, filled with guns, drugs and other illegal substances. He found few dead human soldiers and one dead bandit with a hood.  
_There was a gunfight here_, he noticed, _but who won it? _

He saw another dead smuggler farther away. Smuggler's body leaned to a cage, sitting in a puddle of blood. In the cage he saw two glooming eyes, staring at him.

"Do it fassst, human." Floran in the cage pleads.

Zach is surprised by the demand. "I'm not here to kill you."

"Yess, I sees, human hasss enough workss killing his own speciesss." Floran is on her knees in the cramped cage, grinning craftily, seemingly entertained by her own joke.

Zach laughed, for some reason. "Hey, there is no need to get mean. I kill only if I need to."

The floran looked at him, visibly uncertain. "Sssure. But what doesss such an admirable gentleman do down here?"

"Trying to get to engine room. You killed that there?" He points to the smuggler body.

"Floran iss no ssslave to human."

"I see."

The floran and the man stare to each other silently. Seconds passed before Zach was sure of his decision.

"What if I would let you free?" He suggested.

"Floran would be happy, sssure. But why would man do ssuch thing?" Floran is clearly surprised by his idea.

"Floran is no slave to human, you know?"

Floran grinned. "Smart human. Floran doesss not eat him. Floran wants to sssurvive."

Zach pulled out his sword. "Now, stay still." Floran froze instantly, fearing the blade would hit her. With a steady strike, the sword cut the cage open.

"Sssword slices metal. Human knowsss what he's doing." Floran said admiringly, while trying to get out of her cage.

Zach helps the Floran out of her cage, while asking: "What is your name? Do you have one?"

"I am Silverleaf. You can call me Sssilver. Can I asssk human's name?" Floran did not seem to be afraid of the human at all. Zach could feel that

"My name is Zachary. Zach, for short." He told. "We have to get to the engine room. Gravity generator is broken. I think I could fix it." In reality, he had no idea how a gravity generator works, let alone how to fix one. His reasons to get there were completely different.

"Zach, human, do you think that helpsss? Is there anything to sssave?" Silverleaf argued, as she wiped dust off her silver leaves.

"I'm not sure. I want to know what actually happened to the station." Zach explained, telling the truth. Partially, at least.

_I really want to know what did this_, he thought as they left the storage behind. _It definitely wasn't me._  
_It wasn't me._  
_Not me. _


	3. Mission Accomplished

_**18 hours ago**_

A screen was blinking.

"Docking systems activated", said the screen.

_I'm safe, _he thought to himself. _I got away, nothing to fear._

Some time ago he had been in a high-tech high-security research facility on Mars. He managed to get what he wanted to and successfully escape. He had to time his operation with precision; He got through the security during a regular skirmish between some factions he didn't want to get more closely acquainted with.

"Docking process complete", the screen informed.

_Alright, time to fetch the loot._

He walked through the corridors of his ship, _Comet_. He slid a key through a small gap between wall panels. After a faint _click _he pulled the key out, pushed one of the panels, which then came off. After putting the panel down he examined the hidden locker.  
He found one of the 3 containers he had illegitimately obtained moment ago.  
Inside the container he could see some sort of alien life form, floating in the container's own gravity field. The creature could survive in vacuum of the container, even indefinitely long. His 'scientist' friend Davis had told him this before his mission.

The Hole was messy as always. Common hangar was cold, dusty and filled with many kinds of spaceships and pods. Not a single one was clean and new, of course.  
Every corner of the huge hangar was filled with pilots and crews of the spaceships. Oddly enough, for the most part pirates did not harm each other's' ships; was it mutual understanding or common love towards ships, it sure was helpful.

He entered to the main hallway and soon arrived to the first chamber, one of the 3 hearts of the Hole. Chamber is almost 300 meters high and filled with various types of dealers and stores of stolen goods. At the particular moment it was packed with dirty and not-so-dirty scums.  
One does not simply trust a pirate, so place was guarded by the faction that operates the station. Guards were equipped with assault rifles and menacing armor covered by a dark cloak. Every sane criminal would definitely stay away from them.

He walked towards guards that stood by an elevator showing an ID card to them. Guard quickly scanned it. After scanner showing a green light guard pressed a button opening an elevator door.

"Err… Up or down?" Black helmet muffled guard's voice.

"Up, thanks."

"Err… ok." Guard said, nodding. Zach stepped into elevator and the small door sealed shut. Elevator dashed upwards.

Metal door pealed from knocking. He could hear a faint yell from other side of the sturdy door. Suddenly a small hatch opened, where he could see someone wearing a pair of absolutely ridiculous goggles looking at him. Hatch closed as fast as it had opened.

Door opened with a metallic sound. A blonde bearded man with a scientist coat and funny-looking goggles was standing in front of him.

"Zach! You're back already!" Davis shouted.

"Late, as always. Um, let's go inside, I don't want to…" Zach asked, before Davis abruptly interrupted him. "Yeah, come in."

"So, you got it?" asked Davis after closing the door. He threw his silly goggles to a nearby table full of test tubes, jars, meters and other scientific appliances. The goggles knocked down some tubes, which then fell down to the floor, shattering with a sharp sound. "Oops. Never mind, I'll clean that later."

Zach smirked and pulled a container out of his bag. "They're right here, D."

"Ooh wow! You got it!" Davis admired. "I didn't even doubt", he added before Zach could comment on his transparent disbelief.

"I got it, with 2 extra ones." Zach put remaining ones on the table.

Davis laughed. "You stealthy criminal. Smooth work, smooth work. Did they see you?"

"They did see me, not until it was too late." Zach admitted. "_Comet_ didn't get a scratch, just to mention."

"They saw you, right… Did they follow you?"

"Nope. They didn't even try. I'm too fast for them." Zach had a slight amount of pride in his voice.

"Interesting, very interesting." Davis pondered. "Alright, I'll get something to drink."


	4. Table Talk

Davis cleared one table in his kitchen. In his apartment kitchen was the only part that wasn't transformed into a lab. _I don't even want to think about eating that stuff I work with_, Davis always says.

"So, you promised to tell more about these… things after I've returned." Zach asks while examining one of the containers with a small creature inside. The unknown being floated inside the capsule, slightly moving. "Where are these things from?"

"That's the most intriguing part of them; nobody knows. These little fellas were found deep down at the bottom of the Mariana Trench a week ago. Completely new, never seen before. Not from Earth, that's for sure. Some think they would've come with a meteorite, and sunk down to the bottom. Unlikely, I say."

Davis took a sip from his cup. "Those morons who call themselves 'national scientists' couldn't find out what these things are in a week. In a week! That's an eternity these days…"

"So you think you could do something anyone else couldn't do?" Zach inquired curiously.

"Of course! I believe so, you know me, it wouldn't be the first notable discovery I've made. Even if I wouldn't find anything soon, at least you took those poor creatures away from those lunatics who'd probably make them a bioweapon of some sort…" Davis' voice faded away.

Both of them were silent for a while, before Zach scratched his chin and continued the discussion. "Wasn't that exactly why you left academia? All that rivalry and controversy that you wanted to escape?"

Davis stared to the nothingness, thinking back to the times before they had left their studies. "That's right. That's what we both wanted to escape; the everlasting treadmill."

"That's why we repaired the _Comet_."

_Comet_ was not an ordinary spaceship. It had been crashed to moon of Earth; Zach and Davis had found it broken without any cargo or crew. They managed to fix it in the course of 3 years. One day they took whatever they deemed useful, disposed everything else and lifted off abandoning their past lives to seek a better future.

"Those were the good times, when we thought the dreams would be in the space, bound in stars." Davis recalled wistfully. "Before we were outlaws."

"We could go back. We have the _Comet_, fuel and a decent amount of money. We could return, finish what we left unfinished and fulfill our promise." Zach considered.

Davis startled. "Oh yes, the dreaded_ Promise_. I don't know why we got that idea. I'm not sure. I had such an utopist way of thinking. You still have, do you?" He sighed deeply.

Zach chuckled. "At least you have a decent job; you can even have your own projects like this. I have to stay as a criminal. I don't think it'd have been any different if we wouldn't have left."

"I wonder. Also related to the _Comet_, does she need any repair? I could lend a helping hand."

"She works fine. I'll keep that in mind though, you gotta keep your promises!" Zach said, standing up.

"Anytime you need. Are you leaving?"

"Yup. I gotta find some work. It's still all about money, nothing changes."

"Indeed. See you!"

Door closed behind Zach. He stumbled through narrow corridors filled with junk, trying to find his way to the infamous _Black Hole_, which was most likely the biggest saloon in the star system. It was the Hole's second chamber, barely losing to the first chamber in size. Hierarchy ruled there too; crews and simple pirates spent their time in lower areas of the saloon, only captains and crime lords had access to the few highest floors. Top floor was fancy, even in the scale of the upper class.

Corridors smelt worse than Apex poop. Even worse, Zach knew what Apex dung smelt like. Comparable to a Po Golem. He could hear Avian laughter from some corner, and he also passed two Glitches talking to each other: "_Are you __**still**__ stuck in the Middle Ages? Come with me_, **_I'll show you the Renaissance_**."

Finally he arrived to the Black Hole from a small hallway. The Chamber was the noisiest place he knew, filled with music, shouts, laughing and singing. Every floor of the circular chamber had an opening in the middle, bordered with a railing, which made the sound echo everywhere. He walked up the stairs to find someone with decent jobs available. He reached the third highest floor just as the guards shoved off a man rambling about penguins with top hats.

Zach found this floor to be peaceful and nice. Someone would have a proper job here. There were some fine gentlemen sitting in a table, one avian pirate captain sitting in a corner with few companions and a waiter serving some drink from a tea pot to a party of Glitches.

Suddenly, the chamber shook. A loud, cracking sound echoed in the chamber. Bottles, cutlery and glasses rattled everywhere.

For couple of seconds everyone was silent. Then everything shook again, this time even greater. Zach fell over with many others all around the saloon, but quickly regained his balance when the shaking stopped. However, the room was skewed and every small object had been fallen over. Lights were flickering everywhere.

One gold-feathered waiter had fallen over the railing, straight through every single floor before flattening to the bottom floor.  
The flowered tea pot she had been carrying was nowhere to be seen.


	5. Unsatisfactory Destinations

The man navigated through the vast network of hallways and corridors closely followed by Silverleaf the Floran.  
Way was not clear; many paths were blocked by wreck, air was thick and gravity didn't work properly in certain areas. Many rooms were almost in a zero gravity. Nonetheless Zachary was still determined to find out why the gravity broke so suddenly.

The Floran however seemed very uneasy. "Human iss insane. No reasson to fight againsst mountainsss. You can't ssstabb them." Silver protested while waving her hand, trying to clear the air. "There'ss no moisture down here. Floranss not like dry placess." Floran coughed few times, and fell silent again.

They entered a pitch-dark corridor. Gravity worked, but lights were out. A strange odor spread from there, almost like…  
"Gasoline", Zach muttered when his foot sunk ankle-deep to the dangerous liquid. "This isn't very promising… Fuel cells are leaking. Engine room can't be far." Zach continued while proceeding through the corridor. Halfway through the gas pool he realized he didn't hear Silver anymore.

He turned around and saw the floran still on the edge of the giant gas puddle, staring to the fluid. "Human goesss alone. Floran doess not want to take a bath in that. One ssspark and Silver iss ashes." Silver said and looked human pleadingly. If it was possible to a floran to make a puppy face, this was it.

"Oh come on! It doesn't harm you! Well, I'm not certain about that, but I don't think so." Zach fretted. "I mean, I don't want to leave you there, high and dry. This station is falling apart, what if something happens? We should stick together. Please?" He smiled as friendly as he could, hoping that the floran would give up.

His pretentious impression wasn't enough to convince Silver. Floran stared relentlessly, this time looking serious and demanding.  
Zach laughed nervously. "Are you serious? Alright, I have an idea…"  
Thirty seconds later he was carrying Silver on his back over the gasoline, swearing to himself he would never take a floran with him again.

"It's getting pretty dark here. Would you mind to take out a flashlight? There should be one attached to my belt. I don't think I can get it, I'd have to drop you. Try to reach it." Zach asked when they ventured deeper into the gasoline-filled corridor.

"Bright-light-stick!" Floran exclaimed cheerily. Silver switched the flashlight on and stretched out her arm, pointing the flashlight forwards, illuminating the pitch-dark hallway.  
A steady flow of fuel streamed down from the ceiling. It wasn't much, but enough to tell that the Hole had received some serious damage, probably caused by the same thing that shook the station hours ago. The gas puddle wasn't filling any more, which probably meant that gasoline had a way to the lower decks.

"I see the other edge, let's move." Zachary pointed out. Reaching the dry floor, he dropped the floran. "See, we made it."  
Floran nodded slightly. "Thanksss, Zach-human. Silverleaf appreciatesss."

Both then continued to examine their surroundings. Left side of the corridor had few doors accompanied by small electronic panels, powered by an emergency generator. Dim light shimmered from each of them. Right side, however, was completely buried by a huge mound of metal wreckage and wires.  
"This is it; the engine rooms." Zach sighed with relief. He ran through the corridor, seeking for the right door. "Here, I found it. Artificial gravity generator, right behind this door."

As he examined the panel next to the door, floran followed him to and tried to look in through the stained window, conveniently placed at head height into the door. "I sssee no thing. Can you open thisss?"

"I can't. We did this for nothing." Zach whispered and buried his face in his hands. Silver's eyes widened in surprise.

"How ssso, meatman? What hasss happened?"

"We can't go in there. There is no air. Whatever broke the gravity generator, also broke the whole room." Zach sat to the dusty floor, thoughts running through his head. Firstly, he knew he should've known this since the beginning; the generator must have been destroyed by an outside impact. What else could break it and simultaneously shake the entire space station? Sabotage wasn't a possibility, because it'd have been much more subtle.

Explosives would've blown up the fuel cells and half of the station in the process. If missiles, the same thing. Lasers are more accurate than that, they wouldn't affect the whole station. What possible methods of destruction is left? Would they be stupid enough to smash their ship against the sturdy metal-plated wall?

Before he could solve the problem at hand, Silver alarmed him. Floran turned the flashlight off, and whispered: "Lightsss and sspeech."Zach saw the dim moving light in the ruins of the desolated Hole, albeit he couldn't hear the noises. The light came from the exact opposite way Zach and Silver had come from. "Hide", he replied quietly and pointed to the wreck pile on the other side of the hallway with his finger.

Floran squeezed into the pile of junk, followed by Zach. Pieces were sharp and cold, piercing their skins like thorns. Zach could feel the dribs of blood trickling down his arms. They settled deep under the pile, well hidden in the surrounding darkness.

The incoming strangers' steps loudened in the darkness. Their flashlights lightened the corridor, filtering through the ruins. The human and the floran were well hidden in the shadows, watching.

Zach finally saw them. There was four of them; each wearing a dark armor and wielding a firearm. They moved through the hallway, occasionally talking to each other. Words couldn't be heard; perhaps they had a comlink system in their helmets. They seemed to be looking at the doors, looking for something. For the great surprise, they stopped at the same door Zach and Silver were standing by a moment ago.

One of the soldier-looking intruders examined the panel, and probably told his discovery to the rest of the pack. Though the helmets muffled their voices, Zach was sure it sounded like all of them laughed to whatever he had told. One of them then nodded towards the direction of the gas pond, and some chat ensued, after which one of them took a moderately small metal box from his belt.

This soldier then headed towards the leaked fuel, and placed the box on the ground near it. Others waited near him, making sure he wouldn't be interrupted by anything. Neither Zach or Silver could see what he did with it, but after a while he stood up saying few words to the others. Then they walked away the same way they had come.

Zach and Silver waited minutes, until they were completely sure the soldiers are gone for good. They crawled out of their hideaway, without changing any words. They both knew these soldiers were the attackers who had invaded the station, killing everyone and everything on their way. Both of them had barely survived through the fight between them and the outlaws.

Zach had been sure that they are USCM soldiers, but now he noticed that something was off. Soldiers' behavior wasn't exactly what you would expect from trained soldiers. They were experienced of course, but it didn't feel that the source of the experience was USCM military. Whichever the case was, there was no doubt they would kill any survivors from sight.

Silverleaf the floran approached the metal box cautiously. "What isss thisss? Lookss like a bomb, is Sssilver right?" Zach walked past the floran carefully, leaning over the box. "I'm afraid so. Let's not touch it. I don't want to trigger it by any means." He gulped nervously, and backed off with gentle steps. "I have no idea how to defuse bombs. I'm not sure how much time we have until it detonates, but I suggest we should get off here before that happens."

"Ssstunning idea." Floran hissed and headed towards the direction where the soldiers had went, closely followed by Zach.

After finding a staircase that was not collapsed, they climbed upwards, ending up to the saloon Black Hole. It was not the fastest way out, but they decided to take it in order to avoid being caught. Saloon was partially collapsed, as the second highest floor had collapsed and tumbled down taking parts of other floors with it. Many soldiers, pirates and other folk had fallen down the middle opening during the fight to be plummeted to the bottom floor, forming a pile of bodies on top of the poor avian waiter.

Zach chose an entrance leading to the apartment section. The narrow door was the same one he had entered to the saloon hours ago. It hadn't changed a bit, though the terrible smell of dirt and junk was not present, but replaced by the smell of burning. Floran slowed down before entering the narrow corridor. "Why'ss human going there? That'ss not the right way out." Silver asked, not able to hide her fearfulness at all.

Zach looked at her inquiringly. "How do you know that?" Silver looked back at him without any recognizable expression in her face, at least not for a human. "Sssilverleaf was here, asss a ssslave. Old masster wanted to sssell the floran, but Zach sssaved." Silver hesitated, almost trembling as she stood at the entrance. "If there isss more trouble, isss the human going to help again? Floran isss weak and can't fight againssst gunfire."  
Zach smiled a bit for the floran's question. "I will protect you. I think we both need help right now. We'll go meet a friend here, I hope he is okay." Silver gave in timidly, following Zach to the apartment section.

The whole place was now empty, everyone had seemingly escaped the attack or joined the fight. Few corpses decorate the corridor in a brutal fashion.

Soon enough they arrived to the door of Davis' apartment, only to see marks of an explosion, two burnt bodies and the door itself burned and twisted on the hallway floor.


	6. Makeshift Plan

Zach looked at the mess terrified. Two armored corpses laid in the floor, burned horribly. The sturdy metal door was in pieces, blown up by an explosion. Smoke emitted from the wreck, spreading an acrid smell into the air. He wanted to run straight in to the apartment, but he came to himself and stopped next to the doorway. Silver followed him quietly, standing beside the wall.

Carefully he peeked into the apartment, seeing a terrible mess. The apparent explosion what destroyed the door had also broken things in the Davis' laboratory. Shock wave had hurled all the scientific equipment, papers and dirty coffee mugs all around the place. The explosion also had ignited a small fire. Fire had already gone out by itself, but it had left behind ash and a burnt smell.

On the floor, between two long laboratory tables, was lying a man with a white lab coat. Zach didn't see anyone else, so he entered and rushed towards Davis. The floran hurried after him. Zach checked Davis' wrist for pulse, which he got. "He's still alive!" ,he informed.

For their great surprise, Davis coughed few times. "A… live…" He muttered quietly, opening his eyes slightly. "They don't… get rid of me so easy." He pushed himself up, getting to lean on his back to the other table.

"Are you ok?" Zach asked.

"I think so, yeah." He answered while he looked around his ruined laboratory. "But that's what you get when you play with grenades." He laughed tiredly. Zach glanced at Silver, who seemed very unsure, almost scared. "Grenades? What did you do here with those guys? Whole place is a one big mess."

Davis wiped dust off his jacket, which also had few dried bloodstains. "Well, when everything went haywire, I decided to find you and lift off. I looked at few scans, took a gun and a backpack full of necessities; it took couple of minutes, but not too long." He stopped talking for a while, trying to remember. "Those armored baddies were faster though. I ran into them in the corridor right there outside. I had to retreat back to here, and I managed to close the door before they got in."

Davis paused again, now to attempt standing up. Zach helped him up, while he took support from the table.  
"That door is sturdy, but really wimpy against plasma rifles. They almost got in while I fetched a grenade from back there… I think that I managed to finish them off properly."

Zach nodded. "Luckily you didn't finish yourself. Only losing consciousness for that is a small…" He was interrupted by a sudden commandment shouted behind his back, from the general direction of the door.

"Put your gun down and hands up! In that specific order, if you may! Please do it quick, my pistol is slightly touchy today. " Zach had no guns, so he raised his hands, not knowing what was happening behind him. Davis however, didn't do anything besides raising his eyebrows wonderingly. Zach gave a quick puzzled glance at him.

"Well done, mate! Now you'll…" He was interrupted by sharp floran claws which suddenly twisted around his throat. "Oh bugger" The unknown oppressor bewailed.  
Silver's eyes gleamed in the dimly lit room. "Meatbag dropsss the gun and risesss his armsss. In that ssspecific order, pleassse. Sssilverleaf hasssn't eaten in long time, floran very impatient." Grimacing, the gunman dropped his pistol on the floor. He muttered something about 'bloody florans', which made Silver to tighten her grip, effectively making him to quiet down.

Zach turned around to see the mysterious gunman, who was revealed to be human wearing metal plated leather armor. "So Zach, tell me, where did you find Silver? I heard she was taken away." Davis asked after a few seconds of silence. Zach turned around once again, now facing Davis. "You know… each other?"

"We've never talked, to be honest. But we've met several times, when she was a slave for the owners of the Hole. I've done… a formidable amount of work for them, as I've told you. They didn't treat her very well…" Davis answered, and turned his gaze on the gunman. "And you are a terrible assassin, Nathan. Let him go, Silver. He probably tastes bitter."

Silver loosened her grip. "Too easssy prey. Needsss to be challenging." The gunman, called Nathan, backed off away from Silverleaf, frightened. "The bloody beanstalk was hiding in the darkness! Better assassin than me, I could give anything for such stealthiness. Anyways, sorry about what just happened. This day is getting on my nerves. Close quarters combat ain't my thing, mate."

Zach shook his head in amazement. "So you know each other too, if I understood." Davis nodded. "Yes, albeit not very well. I've met him few times at the bar, you can trust him. Nathan, this is Zachary, my old friend. Now excuse me, I have to find my backpack. Give me a hand, will you?"

"We should hurry. The soldiers planted a bomb down in the engine room area, near the fuel cells. Cells are already leaking, so…" Zach tried to protest, but was interrupted by Davis. "I know they're leaking, I'll show quickly the scans I made. Secondly, those fellas weren't soldiers in the first place."

Nathan yelled from farthest corner of the apartment. "Oi! Is this your backpack right here?" Next to him was Silver, inspecting a pile of ash that looked like it might've once been a dark blue backpack.  
"Aww shit!" Davis bemoaned and ran to the remnants of his backpack. He picked out a slightly burnt cashbox, probably containing his savings. "I can't find the capsules! I mean, the capsules you brought, Zach. The explosion must've blown them somewhere. Find them!"

Zach quickly found one of the three capsules from the floor. It had a bullet hole in reinforced glass, right in the middle. Plasma rifle had destroyed the entire capsule, incinerating the small creature at instant. "I found one, it's completely wrecked."  
"I found one still working fine." Davis replied from behind a broken bookshelf. "Look, there. On the table!" He continued after getting out from among the junk, pointing to a table near Zach. On the table was the last of the capsules.

All four of them gathered around the table, looking at the capsules. One was broken beyond any repair, second was still working, containing the creature inside. The last one was not completely destroyed, but it's glass shell had shattered, and the creature was nowhere to be seen.

"What's up with all this fuss about these capsules, eh? Care to explain what are they?" Nathan inquired.

"Well, these are the newest grand discovery, straight from Earth's deepest depths. Zach here fetched them from a research facility. In the best case this little blob is worth of some money." Davis explained while examining the broken capsules.

"And in the worst case?"

Davis tinkered with the capsule with the broken glass. "We can throw it out of the airlock. There! I got the battery from the capsule. If this capsule's one runs out, I've got a spare." He searched a small bag from a locker and stuffed in his cashbox, the working capsule and the spare battery.

He proceeded to call everyone to a flat table-like device. Pressing few buttons, the device activated and emitted a floating 3D hologram of the hole above the table. "I have couple of sensors placed around the station, which allowed me to get some quite accurate readings of the impact." Animation started, showing the crash in the engine rooms and the vibrations traveling through the station.

"There you see how the impact damaged fuel cells. If this modelling is accurate, accesses to the main hangar are blocked from the maintenance areas, second and the third chambers. Apartment section elevators are all broken." Davis explained, while others looked at the hologram.

Nathan coughed. "First chamber is no good. Explosions broke the walls during the fight, and doors closed themselves."

"Storage room was okay when I rescued Silver from there. Isn't there a transport elevator to the hangar from there? We could get there through the saloon, certainly the quickest way." Zach suggested, getting a nod of approval from Davis.

"Sounds good. Storage is still powered, so elevator will work. There's a staircase next to it, too." Davis agreed, shutting down the hologram. "There's some weaponry under the kitchen floor panels, pick all you want."

"Wait!" Zach requested. "Could that thing tell what was the cause of the destruction?"

"Oh. It was an asteroid, of course. I don't know why the Hole's detection system didn't see it and prevent the impact. Maybe the invaders distracted the system to get in unnoticed, allowing the asteroid to hit." Davis told, noticing the upcoming astonishment on Zach's face. "Oh, and while I'm still in the matter, did you look at the armors? There are no USCM markings on them. Those soldiers aren't actually soldiers, but imposters. The suits might be the same model, maybe even from the same manufacturer which USCM receive their armors."

Zach opened his mouth, but no words came out of it. Only after a moment of thinking he could ask "Who are they then?"

Davis shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I don't even care. Some group of self-justifying lunatics who want to cleanse the universe of criminal scums? It doesn't really matter. What matters is what they're ready to do for their goals. You see what they've done to this place? Let's pick up some guns, and get the hell out of here." Both of them went to the kitchen, where Silver and Nathan were trying to find a real knife.

Although the variety of firearms was diverse, they only took what they needed; few working plasma rifles and pistols, grenades and knives.

"Silver, are you sure you don't need anything else?" Zach asked.

"No. Knife isss all Sssilver needsss for ssstabbing." The floran suddenly fell silent, looking alarmed. "Voicesss, coming here. The armed men." She reported.

"We're outta here." Whispered Davis, and opened one of the kitchen's wall panels. Behind it was a narrow pipe, leading upwards. "There's a ladder, go." He took a smoke grenade and set it to blow up in 15 seconds.

"Fassster, they're coming clossser!" The floran alarmed.

Nathan got in first, then Zach, Silver and finally Davis, throwing the grenade to the laboratory and sealing the secret door shut.


	7. The Ones Who Cheated Death

The four survivors climbed upwards. With every move the pipe clattered, like something could break down at any moment. Their only source of light was a flashlight that Nathan the assassin held in his mouth sideways, illuminating the narrow duct with a dim light.

Right below Nathan climbed Zach, following him at a steady pace. "Where does this thing go? To the third chamber of the Hole, trading and leisure if I recall?" He asked Davis, glancing down where Davis was, below the Silverleaf.

"You're right, this goes to a small backroom where they store random supplies. Not a big detour." Davis answered shortly. "I took a copy of the map with me." He continued, before they all were surprised by a sudden shout.

"Mmmph-eh? Whew haye ey wuxxerht!" Nathan informed, rather unclearly. To ensure others' confusion, he shook his head, making the flashlight beam to dance around the walls of the pipe.

"What?" Everyone else asked simultaneously.

Nathan shook his head again and murmured, now in frustration.  
"Eye shoid… mmmph-argg!" He stopped climbing and took his flashlight out of his mouth. "I see a hatch up there! Is it so hard to understand, eh? Do I need a key, Davey?"

"Just go, it's open. If it isn't, try to break it down."

Luckily, the hatch was open and the exit was unobstructed. They entered into a small storeroom one after another. After getting out of the pipe, Davis closed the hatch. Silver and Nathan lifted a heavy burlap sack on it. "That should keep them away if they decide to go that way. Why you have a secret door in your flat anyway?"

"I think you can call it one of the perks of being a chemist in this industry. I'm important for my 'employers'." Davis clarified. "We should move on. They heard us in the lab, they might be searching for us."

Zach moved towards the only door in the room. "Or leaving the entire station, and leaving us for the bomb. Silver, do you hear anything outside?" He asked from Silver, who pressed her head against the door and listened for a while.

"Floran hearsss clatter and footssstepsss. Not in the next room, but room after it. Sssomeone isss in there, more perhapsss, if they very sssilent."

Zach looked at Davis and Nathan, who drew their guns out, nodding. Silver held her knives, ready to stab or throw. Zach shoved the door open, swiftly but silently.

They entered to a bar's backroom, the bar counter being in their left side. Zach stood against the wall, and peeked to the bar behind the counter. There were pieces of broken glass in every corner, accompanied by dust, ash and dead bodies; it didn't differ from the general state of the Hole. However, in one windowed corner of the small, rather sophisticated bar, was a metal man crouched over a dead body. The glitch didn't see or hear them.

Zach shouted behind the counter: "Halt! You in the corner!" Nathan leaped over the counter, Silver and Davis walked around it, everyone pointing their guns at the glitch. The glitch was frozen over the avian body, squeezing the jewelry he had pilfered from the pockets of the dead in his hands. Glitch raised his head slowly, looking through the wall-wide window bordered by red and gold curtains.

Zach moved closer the unknown glitch. "You know what has happened to this station? Drop the loot, and leave that poor avian captain to peace, I used to work for him. What are you still doing here; this place can blow up at any second." He shook his head in disbelief, laughing. "And yet you sit here, stealing…"

The glitch responded by chuckling with a robotic, deep voice. "Amused. Why do you even care? Look outside, human, into the darkness." Glitch stared through the window, away from everyone, looking the stars glimmering in the space, looking like little sparks against a black canvas.  
"Philosophical. It an abyss out there, deeper than your worst nightmares. We are in these depths alone, seeking our own fortune, with the price of others' happiness. In the end, you are here all by yourself. So, the question is, why not pull the trigger?"

Silence fell to the ruined bar. No-one spoke, until an unknown, rough voice spoke. "The real question is, are you ready for this place? There are damn nasty people out here." An old fat man in his long, dark brown coat had emerged from the shadows, behind the golden curtains.  
The man stood by Zach leaning on his walking stick, pointing his old-fashioned pistol at his head. "Put your guns down, or you'll lose your rash friend here. You too, Mr. Wright."

Zach's rifle fell down on the floor with a bump. Nathan and Davis dropped their weapons, Silver let go of her knives reluctantly. "You got us now, congrats. What you want?" Zach said calmly.

"Zach." Davis interrupted. "He is the one in charge of this station."

The man grinned. "Not exactly, Mr. Wright. I _was _in the charge of this station. Walter Mackney, in your service." He pushed his pistol's barrel against the side of Zach's head even more furiously. "Now, tell me, do you have a ship?"

"Why? I've heard that the third chamber had a private hangar. Isn't that…"  
"Shut up! Tell me, or you will die, you damn idiot!" Mackney started to lose his temper. His face turned bright red and he shook his gun menacingly.

"Mackney, there is bomb on this station. They're going to destroy the Hole." Davis warned with a calm and serious voice. "We have a ship."  
Suddenly Mackney froze and turned his head towards Davis.  
"You're bluffing, aren't you?" His face turned pale, and they saw fear in his eyes.

Davis closed his eyes for a moment. "Not here, and definitely not now. The attackers know about us." Mackney laid down his arms, and fell silent. Davis directed his attention towards the glitch. "Who is he?"  
Mackney glanced at the metal man. "I don't know. He's not with me. I was going to ambush him right before you appeared."

Now the glitch, who was staring at the deep space all this time, spoke. "Informative. My name is Steelclaw." He turned around, and faced everyone's inquiring glare. "Sarcastic. I suppose you humans don't bother to introduce yourselves, as I am only a glitch. I don't think you mind if I join either, noticing you also have a floran."

Mackney winced, and sought the floran with his eyes. "You brought _that _with you!? Are you insane! That thing could tear you apart any second!"

Zach reacted hastily. "Now you shut up! She saved us from the invaders. Twice!"

Mackney shook his head in disapproval. "Yes it did of course, but wait until you get to safety! It will feast on your flesh. Shoot it down!"

Zach chuckled in his anger. "Now you are so wrong…"

He couldn't say anything else before the floran shrieked.

Zach turned swiftly around to face the danger, but the attacker was already gunned down.

At the main door of the bar lied a body of a soldier, shot at his chest. Zach immediately looked at Silver questioningly. "That'sss the only one. No anyone elssse." The floran only said, still shocked by the incident.

"Nice shot." Zach commented.

"I was aiming for his head." Davis replied. "It looks like we've got a rogue."

Suddenly, the presumed dead soldier twitched. "The bugger is still alive! Shoot it!" Nathan screamed. Instead of doing that, Davis ran to the soldier to kick the soldier's gun away. The soldier didn't try to reach it, but with his last powers he pressed a button on his forearm attached to his armor.

"Stop him!" Zach shouted, but it was too late. Davis wrenched the soldier's helmet off his head and shouted: "What did you do?"

The brown haired human smiled a twisted smile, staring to Davis with insanity in his eyes.  
"They… know…" He muttered, before he convulsed in pain. "Filth… you, you will burn… in the flames of the purge…" He continued with his last strength. After coughing few times, he took his last breath. His eyes stared into nothingness, smiling his horrible smile.

Zach looked at others, scared. "Do you think, that he…"

"…meant the bomb." Davis finished. "Let's run."

"Finally something we can agree on! Go!" Mackney shouted, following others out of the bar, down towards the main hangar.


	8. To Burn in the Flames of the Purge

And so they ran. They didn't care about the noise they made, because death would be around the corner in any case. In the case they couldn't beat the invaders to the hangar – or even if they had already lost – it was clear that they'd die along _the Hole_.

Davis and Silver led the party through the maze of hallways. Davis had the map, and Silver had the eyes and ears. Floran's senses were unrivaled, Zach even pondered the possibility she could sense air currents. It was clear to him why florans were feared as opponents. Their supreme physical skills made them the greatest hunters in the galaxy.

_Or even in the universe… and still so helpless against gunfire…, _Zachary thought, _I must be careful of the old man.  
He is dangerous, and still holds his pistol. I'll think about that later._

Steelclaw the glitch, who joined their "crew" coincidentally, also worried him. Although the glitch had no weapons, he could be a potential threat. Luckily Nathan was close, watching his back. He trusted this man, because Davis did too. Davis had always been better distinguishing a friend from a foe.

"Left and down the stairs!" Davis directed. "Twelve floors down, and then to right! Zach and Silver, go ahead!"

They led the crew to the staircase, which – surprisingly to Zach – led straight down to the second chamber. Stairs made a horrible, screeching noise with every step they made. Now, when he saw this place ruined and empty, he realized how stupendous the Hole actually was.

In its glory days it had been full of people, music and joy, not forgetting the usual fights and murders. He had told himself he didn't like it, not at all. However, now when all that was lost, he begun to realize he missed it. _The Hole_ was now a mausoleum, a catacomb, dead and silent.  
_Did these people deserve this? To die, in hands of merciless killers, or their brethren? Were they murderers, thieves or mercenaries themselves, is this… fair? Nobody escapes death, they – We – the least… but still…_

They passed a floor after a floor, every second being grinding.  
All of sudden, Silver stopped.  
"Down there." The floran shuddered, and pointed towards the center of the circular room, downwards. Floors had been crumbling and floor had dozens of holes. Through those holes she has noticed something.

And Zach saw them. The soldiers were scaling the wall five or six floors below them. There were approximately ten of them, but Zach didn't stop to count. Or even to shoot, as he wouldn't get a clean shot at them. Instead, he advised others to go faster.  
Few seconds later, lights were pointed at them; they've been noticed. Davis took the lead with Zach, and they both fired towards the soldiers. Their fire was returned, and the soldiers increased their pace. No-one was hit, not amongst them or the soldiers. When the soldiers were two floors below them, it was time to them to turn right towards the entrance to the storage.

They heard running steps behind them. Now it was a race of life and death. Either they made it to the hangar before the soldiers, or the soldiers caught up and shot them. Hallways started to get twisty, luckily for them. Most likely the chasers had superior weapons – Military standards, like the armors. Davis was again leading them with the map, Zach and Nathan staying behind others, as they were having the best weapons.

Zach got an idea. "D! Do you have the grenades? We could use few of them!" He inquired from Davis.

Davis glanced over his shoulder absently, seemingly being out of breath. "Corridors are too narrow, blast wave gets us too!" He yelled, while turning a corner. He took few steps before others caught him up, then slowing down in shock. The rest of the group came to a halt behind him, facing a person pointing a gun at them.

The helmet-wearing person wavered when he saw the others come after Davis, but he did not attempt to retreat. Zach felt cold in his body. For a second he thought this was it, the unavoidable finale. They could outmatch the attacker, but would be slowed down enough for the soldiers to catch up and finish the job. In the next second something unexpected happened.

Old man Mackney stepped forwards and pointed his walking stick at the attacker. "You! Follow and guard!" he ordered. "Go." He said to Davis and others. For everyone's surprise, the attacker obeyed. He waited for the crew to pass him, and positioned himself behind Zach and Nathan.  
Zach now recognized the sleek helmet and other clothing to belong to the guards of _the Hole_, who this man clearly was. It made sense he obeyed, since Mackney was the operator of the entire station.

The soldiers however, had caught up during the interruption. Davis led them to turn right from the next intersection, but soldiers reached the corner they just were before they could turn to get there. Zach and the unknown guard opened fire when the first soldier popped out behind the corner carelessly, and they downed him easily. Other one was more careful and peeked around the corner, and rapidly fired towards Zach and the guard, forcing them to retreat.

Zach ran down the corridor to a metallic double door, where Nathan waited for them. They entered to a sizeable room with crates and shelves, similar to one Zach found Silver from. Straight ahead was a wide open entrance to another, even bigger room filled with columns of massive shelves. They've made it to the storage.

Silver, Mackney, Steelclaw and Davis already reached the entrance and disappeared behind a wall, only Davis stopping to wait them. With his hand he signalled them to move along the sides of the storeroom, behind a row of both wooden and plastic crates.

The soldiers entered the room, quickly and cautiously. Zach, Nathan and the guard opened fire towards the soldiers, making them to seek shelter from other side of the room, where tall shelves stood. One or two of the soldiers were hit, possibly fatally, but Zach couldn't tell.

Then Davis appeared again, now throwing something towards the shelves. This 'something' was a grenade.

Explosion shook the room. Shelves collapsed, crates raining down crushing those who were unlucky and hiding near them. Zach covered behind a huge sack, still having an eye contact to the guard and Nathan, who both were standing behind a storage container.  
"Run, now!" Davis yelled to them. The explosion definitely didn't kill or even wound all of the soldiers thanks to their armor suits. So, they continued running once again.

The next room was massive. Both first and second chamber lost to this without any doubt. This room wasn't circular like the chambers, it's was a huge rectangle having entrances to smaller storerooms in both sides. In the middle was an open way for storage vehicles, with containers, crates and shelves alongside.

Zach, Davis and the others ran towards the transport elevators, which would lead into the hangar. Silver, Steelclaw and Mackney were already ahead of them.  
Noticing them, Mackney turned around and shouted:  
"Elevator is slow! Use the maintenance staircase!" He disappeared to a small door at the right side of the elevators.

The remaining soldiers still continued to pursue them. Most of them just ran, in the hope they could catch them before they reach the hangar. Some of them tried to shoot them from distance, but weren't successful. They had either injured themselves, broke or lost their weapons in the explosion. Davis, Zach, Nathan and the guard ran to the staircase, and raced up them. When they got up, Davis used one of his grenades again, and dropped it down. As it exploded, the staircase collapsed down.

Others were waiting in the hangar. "Nervous. Where is that ship of yours, human?" Steelclaw the glitch asked.

"That way. I hope she's alright, or we might be screwed." Zach responded, nervous about the ship's fate.

He indeed had a reason to be afraid. Many ships seemed to be crashed to each other or intentionally sabotaged. Hangar was filled with smoke and wreckage, small fires were visible, too. Explosions had destroyed several ships and damaged the station. Many people had attempted to escape the station with their ships, but ended up crashing when trying to get through the airlock. All three airlocks seemed to have a ship stuck in them.

The crew navigated through the fires and debris. They tried to protect themselves from the smoke with hands and clothing, as much as they could. Zach sighed in relief when he finally saw _the Comet_ barely untouched, besides few minor dents. He ran to the ship's control panel, which was hidden behind a seamless hatch camouflaged to the ship's silver-colored hull, and opened the ship's ramp.

Zach hurried to the cockpit and started the engines. "We'll blast through with lasers, unless anyone has a better idea." He informed.

Davis took co-pilot's seat. "Alright. I'll charge shields up to maximum, it's going to get _pretty_ intense here."

Zach lifted off and steered _the Comet_ in front of the nearest airlock, which was slightly ajar, having a ship stuck between the massive doors. Zach held the ship steady, and targeted the doors with front cannons, preparing to shoot when the shields would be ready.

Mackney entered the cockpit, along with others. "Contact the hangar operating system. I have a code to unlock the airlocks automatically. You'll have to clear the wreck, anyway." Mackney directed calmly. "Code is 24-32-61-51-84." Davis entered the code, and through the small gap they saw the second door open, but first one remained stuck.

Nathan stared out of the window. "Mates, the whackers arrived."  
Soldiers had entered the room via the elevator, which was apparently malfunctioning, or really _slow_.

Zach decided to leave pilot's seat. "Davis, you can handle flying like in the old days. I'll take control of the cannon." He said, and left the cockpit to take control of one of the ship's gun turrets.

Davis changed the seat quickly. "There are five cannons, guys. Go take your own, Nathan, Steelclaw, and Mackney's pal, whoever you are." He guided. "If you don't know how to shoot, then learn fast."

Nathan and Steelclaw left for the cannons, but the guard was unsure. "Go, you fool." Mackney said, slightly amused. "You don't have to ask my permission, good man. We're all in this together."

Zach missed. The shot hit wreckage instead, and caused a small explosion. He cursed, and aimed again. This time he hit, killing one of the soldier immediately. _Now they learn a lesson, which sadly is their last one. Where are you going? There is nowhere to… Wait.  
_  
He noticed one of the soldiers enter a small ship near the main exit. Next to it was other like it; probably the ships they arrived with. It was a short range fighter, which meant they had come from Mars, most likely.

Zach hit the other ship, effectively destroying it beyond repair. Other ship was destroyed by another shot, from another turret. Zach turned on the intercom.

"Nicely done."

"Piece of piss. Thanks."

Lasers were fired against the airlock and the shuttle stuck in it. Metal slowly melted, and the shuttle exploded. Wrecked ships took damage and caught fire. Soldiers, now helpless in the hangar, ran away from the destruction. Explosions continued as the lasers fed the fire. Doors melted and broke, piece by piece. Entire hangar was on fire. Everyone stared into the blazing inferno, soldiers and the crew of _the Comet_.

The shield sustained though. Incredible amounts of energy were used to maintain it, but it was enough. The gap in the airlock door widened, and finally it was big enough. Davis increased speed and steered the Comet out of the hangar, others cheering.

"Hold on!" Davis yelled, horrified. "We're not out of this yet!"

The remaining soldiers stood in the fiery destruction looking at the escaping ship, hoping to be avenged, and waiting to be burnt in the flames of the their own making


	9. And the Flames Wither

_The Comet_ smashed against shipwrecks floating at the front of the airlock exit with a screeching noise. The ships had collided, which meant that the energy shield was getting weaker. The ship pushed through the crowd of destroyed spaceships, receiving a heavy fire immediately when getting through them. Shield reflected the most of them, but the ship took damage nevertheless. The crew sought the source of fire furiously.

"Dave! Get the shields up!" Zach shouted through the corridors of the ship, completely ignoring the intercom system.

"Can't do! We've lost almost all energy; I can't even use the front lasers!" Davis replied via the intercom, calmly but tensely. "Shields are on as long as I can keep them on. There's two hostile ships ahead, at 10 and 1 o'clock!"

Ship shook in the crossfire wildly. Apparently the attackers did not leave all response upon the foot soldiers; two ships were left to take out everyone who had escaped the station. The ships were the same small fighters the saw inside in the hangar, same model the others had used. The ships seemed to be meant used primarily in dogfights, making the ship seem ineffective in their current mission. The ships wouldn't be able chase ships that could escape them to the space. In other hand, their high maneuverability made them nearly impossible to hit. Their short range weaponry could eliminate surprised enemies quickly, too.

But the pilots haven't faced the Comet before. The Comet, a ship filled with powerful technology, had been adrift for unknown period of time before colliding to the Moon of Earth, where Davis and Zach had found it. It was a fast ship, despite its medium size. Engines and shield mechanisms were incredibly advanced, as they still were superior to most of the other ships' systems. The fighters moved around the Comet trying to find a blind spot, where the turrets couldn't have a straight line of vision. Due to the ship's conventional design, there were no such spots. Davis pretended to steer the ship away from the station, but turned around sharply and directed the ship towards the space above the hangar module and below the First Chamber. The fighters followed.

_The Hole _was constructed of modules, small and big. Some modules, like all the Chambers, the hangar and the storage were massive. The modules were separate, connected only with some support beams and hallways. The space between the modules is tight, but enough for a medium-sized spaceship. In addition Davis was an experienced pilot.

"We can't outmatch them in open space! Zach, Nate, Steel, try to hit them. I'll come up with _something_." Davis said, trying to keep himself calm. Sweat on his hands made the steering difficult, and he could swear he was shaking, but he kept himself cool and concentrated to the flying.

"You have the codes" He said to Mackney. "Connect to the Hole's systems and check if the shields are on around the engine modules. If they aren't, my idea might work."

The ship made sharp turns in the 3-dimensional maze the station formed with all of its parts. The Comet scratched its hull to the wall of one of the chambers as the bullets raced through the empty void of space. Davis navigated the ship in the labyrinth, but they couldn't shake the fighters off. They avoided the gunfire, sometimes barely, but the fighters didn't get a good shot. Neither the crew of the Comet, as the aiming was horrible while the ship was twisting and turning all the time.

They had no luck, until Nathan succeeded. With the ship's heavy-duty cannon he hit another of the fighters, right to the left-side engine. The fighter couldn't manage from the loss of one engine in the sharp turn, and plummeted to the opposite direction. The fighter exploded against the 3rd chamber's wall. "Good! Nice work!" "Elated. Perfect hit!" The brief celebration echoed in the intercom. The remaining fighter avoided the explosion and continued pursuing them despite the loss of its friend.

"Shields are off, along with all detection systems." Everyone heard Mackney's voice. "These guys hacked the system or something. That's how they got in unnoticed."

"And that's how the meteor was able to hit." Davis deduced. "Alright, there should be a huge crater in the engine module. There are no shields at all and the fuel cells are leaking. Change the cannon to shoot explosives. We'll blow that place up."

The Comet circled around the chambers, as Davis was trying to find the direction towards the engine module. The fighter increased its speed, as now it had more space to maneuver when the other fighter was gone. It fired furiously, wasting bullets. It hit the Comet few times, but not critically. The pilot had lost his temper, presumably when realizing all of his comrades were now dead.

"2 o'clock, about ten seconds!" Davis shouted to the communication system as the ship approached the engines. He increased the speed, ready to escape the explosion that would ensue. If the explosion wouldn't take the fighter with it, it would have a perfect line of sight as the Comet wouldn't have anything as a cover.

Zach counted. 7 seconds. Comet received a hit, and the ship shook in the sharp turn.

3 seconds.

As Davis shouted "Now!" time seemed to slow down. The wrecked wall of the gravity generator room was revealed. Zach shot the explosive. He missed. The bomb hit the intact wall and bounced off. However, Nathan and the guard hit the bull's-eye. Next second felt like an eternity. Then the bombs detonated. The fighter narrowly dodged the first explosion, which was caused by the explosives. The second explosion, started by the fuel, was much larger.

The entire space station trembled. The explosion engulfed the small fighter. The Hole swung wildly, as the massive explosion caused a chain reaction of smaller explosion. The station spun around in the space, wreckage flying around. Heading to the pitch black space, the Comet escaped the fiery explosion. The flames were suppressed in the vacuum as fast as they had appeared.

There was no celebration. Just silence. A sigh of relief could be heard from the intercom. After a minute, the silence broke. Someone started to laugh. The laugh was not amused, but rather relieved. Some others joined in to the laugh, which finally ended to a deep, simultaneous sigh from everyone.

The crew returned to the cockpit, smiling. Davis, Silver and Mackney, who were in the cockpit the whole time, weren't. They stared at a screen, looking either scared or disbelieving; Zach couldn't tell which one it was. "What's it? What's going on?" He asked, looking at each of them.

"It'sss Earth." Silver responded.

Zach tilted his head in puzzlement, with a slight amount of anxiety creeping in his mind. "What about Earth? Is everything ok?"

Davis turned away from the screen, looking at the rest of the crew. With a grim-looking face he informed: "No. It's not ok. Earth…" He paused to take a deep breath, staring to the nothingness for a second, as if he had forgotten what he had been saying. "…is under attack."


	10. Enemy Beneath Us

"It must've happened while we were trapped at the Hole. Oh my dear god."

Every single screen showed recent news and live broadcast straight from Earth. Message was the same from every source: Run for your lives. Screen showed people running in panic, ships leaving the planet in hurry and dozens of soldiers running. Minor and major factions were united against the common enemy. Zach recognized the colors of USCM, Red Star, Southern Freedom, along with many other militaristic groups. The only thing was missing was the enemy. Artillery fired into nothingness. Then, suddenly, they saw massive _something_ to tear apart a skyscraper in one of the screens.

"Crikey! What the heck is that!?"

"Say whatever you say, but it seems that Earth is not being attacked. It's Earth attacking us."

They fell to a complete silence as the massive something – Which did really look like a tentacle – threw the skyscraper towards the camera, positioned in a flying ship. Static. The screen showed another view, again filled with terror and death. As the seconds passed, it became clear that the threat was coming underneath the Earth, not above the skies.

Artillery barely hurt the beast. Watching the flow of information, it was clear fighting was simply futile. They were facing a foe that was nearly invulnerable, giant and simultaneously practically everywhere. Only logical choice was to run. Many had chosen that way, as the broadcasts showed spaceships leaving the Earth. Civilians were evacuated to the army dreadnoughts, which lifted off as soon as they could. Personal shuttles, cruisers, fighters and dreadnoughts were all in the sky at the same time, like a swarm of flies. In the panic and confusion some of them rammed into each other, causing devastation in the sky. Massive tentacles took out some of the greater ships. The amount of destruction was numbing.

"There is no way everyone is getting out of there. There are billions of people on Earth. I think this is going to be the end of us. Humans."

_The end of us. The end of home. We're losing it all. _  
Thousands and thousands of years of history, life and death, happiness and sadness, joy and sorrow, all gone forever. Nature, wildlife, literature, art, all the creativity of human race since the beginning of history, all gone forever. Even all the negative things of humanity, gone forever too.  
_We've been selfish, evil and cruel. Counting all of the discrimination we've done, is it justified?  
We've never been completely selfish. We've been compassionate and caring too. Always there's been some good in everyone; There's always something, someone we've cared more than everything. This is not right. We can't die like this._

"Hey." Davis interrupted his train of thought. "We caught a transmission. It's USCM, oddly. It's a wonder we can hear it. Communications must be messed up by that monster."

All but one screen went dark. A loud crackling sound echoed from the speakers, sounds of explosions and shouting could be heard from the background. A slightly out-of-breath male voice spoke, sounding concerned and formal at the same time.  
"This is Supreme Commander Hawk Novablast requesting transport shuttle at…"  
Brief silence, during which loud rumbling could be heard.  
"Citadel W05E, West. Pickup 60 civilians and 20 soldiers, over."

A much deeper voice responded with similar formality in his voice. "This is Supreme Commander Graham, wilco. Help is coming. Good to hear about you. I have some things to discuss, over."

"Copy that, over."

"General Novablast, I'm sorry to inform that the US government has been collapsed, and their last order was my promotion as the Supreme Commander, over."

"I was promoted after Commander Armstrong was KIA, over."

"Hawk, there's no-one else but us and Kale alive, and she got the same message as we did. Higher officials are all dead or missing. There are no official orders anymore, over."

"We should negotiate this at later date. General Kale should voice her opinion." A second passed after Hawk finished: "Over."

"She complied. I'm the most experienced of us, for the sake of pure functionality this is the best solution. There may not be a late date. This will be not discussed again, over."

"Will comply, over."

"Shuttle should be there soon. Take the civs to safety. Good luck, General Novablast."

As the Commander Graham finished his words, a massive explosion was heard through. Rapid gunfire and shouts echoed through. "RETREAT!" Graham's shout was heard.  
"Graham!" Hawk shouted, without getting a reply.  
Gunfire and explosions intensified, until they fell silent, gun by gun, only to be replaced by a disgusting, soggy sound of movement of multiple beings – Presumably tentacles. Sounds of sloppy movement, struggle and Graham's grunting, reduced to the sloppy movement and struggle, then only to the sound of sloppy movement, and finally static.

Hawk's sigh broke the shocked silence. "Supreme Commander, huh…"

Transmission finished.

Everyone in the cockpit of the Comet stood still, in utter shock. No-one spoke, because of the reason there was no words to speak. There was nothing to do; they were powerless in the turn of events. Suddenly, Davis spoke, saying the six words that changed everything.

"We have to go to Earth."

Mackney slowly turned his head and pointed his piercing cold eyes at Davis. "You _are_ kidding, aren't you? I certainly hope so, and not just on behalf of your health." His complaint fell on deaf ears.

Davis ignored him and turned away from the screens, looking at Zach. "You know we have to. _We made a promise._" Zach bowed his head, filled with mixed feelings.

"What promise? What are you talking about?" Mackney inquired, rather offensively. Instead Davis just stood still, staring at Zach, who was still in his thoughts, thinking what has happened and what would happen next.  
_Has it come to this? Just as we escaped, this happens? Everything… Every single thing has led to this moment. Oh… What should we do? We could escape… There would be no-one to judge us. But it doesn't feel right…_

"Eh, mates? You should shed a little light on the matter." Nathan asked after a while.

Zach raised his head, and let his gaze sweep the cockpit, looking at everyone's eyes, finally stopping to face Davis's stare. "I'll tell them, Dave. I'll tell the story." He said. He took a deep breath, and begun the story.

"We – Davis and me – aren't from a wealthy home. Area we're from is one of the poorest districts on Earth, maybe even the poorest. You can't call the place a slum, but it's not a far from it. The oldest buildings are centuries old and in bad shape. It's deprived and barren, there is pretty much anyone takes for granted. Everyone works for their living; if you don't, you'll die to starvation. It's a constant fight to stay alive. We have some privileges though, like school for example.

"Mine and Dave's families have been friends even before our birth; our fathers were best friends at the time, I suppose. We were born in a very unstable time. Soon after our birth our fathers were forcefully recruited to some kind of illegal liberation army, and were soon killed after the army was vanquished by officials. Neither of us have no memory of them. Our mothers had no way to earn a living and raise a child at the same time, so they decided to work together.

"So, we were raised in that place. We tried to help at work when we were old enough, but we couldn't earn money as most of the vacant jobs included hard physical work, which we couldn't do. So we practiced petty theft, earning money and food that way. We did good work in that, despite our mothers' orders not to do such things. Davis' older brothers did as much as work they could, but it wasn't always enough.

"Only place we actually did good work was school. We two were exceptionally bright students, Davis more so. We learned rather quickly everything the local school had to offer. Everyone was amazed, and soon certain people grew interested in us. A one exceptionally wealthy party offered us a deal: we would head to a better school, and our families would get steady flow of cash, enough for an above average lifestyle. After our graduation we would work for the said party and his organization. We couldn't refuse. Shortly after my eighteenth birthday, we left for the so-called 'Moon Academy'.

"Before we left, we promised to our families and friends we'd come back some day. We'd come back, with a ship. We promised we'd take them to another place, and start a new, better life. We… never had the chance or resources to do it…" Zach's voice faded away, as he stared through the glass pane to the space.

"But now… the best place to be at is anywhere but Earth. The area we lived in is far from nearest space port. They can't get to the nearest one before the last evacuation shuttle leaves. Davis is right. We have to go." Zach finished the story, looking at the crew, seeing compassion, distrust, doubt and confidence in their faces.

Mackney stood up again, still seeming edgy. "I couldn't care any less about your personal problems. You see, I'm a man of practicality and _sense_. I do not offer myself as a feast to a SOME – GODDAMN – MONSTER! Especially not after what we just have experienced! We already survived! Man does not cheat death twice in a row! You can go to kill yourself for a '_noble cause'_, but drop me in the way!" Mackney's face was bright red after the fit of rage.

Davis answered coldly. "This is our ship, and we set the course. We don't have time to stop by. We need to head towards the Earth immediately, or our friends will die." Mackney looked furious hearing this, looking like he would want to strangle Davis.

"However," Davis added  
"You didn't board this ship by choice. Therefore we should have a vote. We should not act without thinking our actions first." Crew responded with nodding. "I and Zach vote for Earth. Nathan?"

"Well mates, to be honest, because you helped me back there, I feel I'm in debt. I help you in return, so I vote Earth, and I won't regret." Zach noticed that Davis was relieved when Nathan agreed.

"Sssilver will help too. Sssave Davisss' and Zach'sss kin, friends. Sssilver will hunt the beassst."

Davis nodded. "It's 4 against 3 now, it's enough. Do you two have anything to say?" He asked the guard and Steelclaw the Glitch, searching from them with his eyes.

A voice rose from the back corner of the cockpit. "Decided. I do not wish to endanger myself for humans who I do not care of. Nonetheless, the majority has chosen my fate." Steelclaw pondered, his optical sensors closed. "Resolute. I will assist you in your mission, in the purpose of completing it as fast as possible. After we have successfully left the planet Earth, you will drop me and others who wish to the nearest space port."  
The glitch raised his head, opening his electrical eyes. "Inquiring. Do we have an agreement?" He asked, directing his words for Davis, who nodded.

Mackney grumbled. "You can't be serious. It's a deathtrap." He glanced at the guard. "I suppose you, good man, still agree with me?"

The guard responded by taking off his helmet. Under it was revealed an Apex, with brown fur and long hair. "I am not a man, and I definitely don't agree with you." The female apex declared. "I'm no longer in your service. My job was to guard the Hole, but now that place is gone forever." Mackney grinned in frustration, but complied with the situation.

The female apex turned to others. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Caelia Liem, and I am a mercenary." She clarified.  
"I will help you. I understand how it feels to lose friends and a home. MiniKnog, the governing apex regime, took those both from me." Caelia explained, reminiscing her past.

"Thank you. We couldn't be more grateful to you all." Zach thanked.  
He felt moved by everyone's support. Everyone in the ship had their own past, with all their ups and downs, it was clear to him. Regardless of whatever they've done in their lives, they risked their lives to help. Zach _truly_ couldn't be more grateful.

Davis took again the captain's seat. "Alright, let's head to Earth."


	11. The Devil's Spawn

"It takes a while before the ship is ready for the FTL jump. It has to calculate some coordinates, and there is currently quite lot of space traffic around the Earth. We need to find a safe place to jump to." Davis informed while leaping up from the captain's seat. "We'd better rest for a while before we arrive. So, if you please, ladies and gentlemen, I'd suggest we'd relocated ourselves to the dining room."

He made a silly gesture with his hand. "If Zach has kept the ship in shape, there should be some food in the fridge. Oh, and this ship also has a shower, believe or not."

The crew left the cockpit to one of the Comet's shining silver-colored corridors, Zach in the lead. He directed the crew towards the dining room, letting them to go ahead. Davis stayed behind the group, and laid his hand on Zach's shoulder just as he took a step to follow the rest of the crew. Zach turned around to face Davis having a serious expression.

"Hey." Davis said. "I have something to talk about."  
He nodded his head towards the opposite direction of the dining area. Zach recognized the Davis' impression; he had wanted to talk about something others shouldn't know about.

"Go to eat something, we'll come there in a second!" Zach yelled after the crew, getting a sloppy wave of a hand from Mackney as response. Zach ran after Davis.

Davis led Zach into a small room, which had been Davis' bedroom in the days they had been exploring the universe. Nowadays, Zach occasionally used it as storage. Davis sat on his old bed. "Nothing has changed here since the last time. You haven't changed a thing in here."  
He swept the bed with his hand, whirling dust into air.  
"Not to mention about cleaning."

Zach chuckled. "Yeah. I haven't moved anything, except for few boxes. Everything is just as you left it." He said and sat on a dusty office chair. "So, you had a secret to share."

Zach remembered Davis had brought his bag with him when he stretched his hand to pick up something from it. Zach had forgotten its existence completely. The bag, lying on the floor, contained Davis' cash box, a spare battery and, of course…

"This thing," Said Davis as he lifted the small capsule "Is the secret, and should stay as such as long as possible." Zach fixed his eyes on the small creature floating inside the capsule. The lingering feeling of understanding lurked into his mind.

"This thing is our best hope right now." Davis stared to the being calmly. "This was found from the Mariana trench, which is the one of the lowest points on Earth. Evidently the Beast had spread itself even there. This little creature, believe or not, is probably the most primordial stage of the Beast."

Silence fell as Zach pondered what he heard. Soon he asked: "What you are going to do? I mean, you do have a plan already?"

"Not anything specific. But the most important thing is we could get unique research data by examining this creature. Maybe something, or just _anything_,that could help us – the humanity – to stop that Beast."

"You lost your lab and all equipment didn't you? Do you think we could get help from-" Zach paused to hesitate, as if the next word had been somewhat difficult to say. "-military? Like USCM?"

Davis frowned and shook his head. "Definitely not. Least thing I want to involve in this is the military. We are still outlaws, remember? They wouldn't trust me to lead the analysis. They would take this thing away and hand it over to their own folk. Those scientists are over-eager imbeciles who would probably end up killing it in the second they can get their hands on it."

"No, I have this with me." Davis smiled as he took his PC out of his inside pocket. "I used this to store the station map when we escaped, but it can hold much more. All my work results, logbooks and handy galactic trivia are stored here. I have also a list of trustworthy researchers and scientists."

Davis showed the list to Zach. "Bis'anrd, Darius Bling, Bluefin, Aldrich Bourne, Coraldream… I can't recognize any of these names! Are you sure these people are to be trusted?" Zach asked with suspicion.

"I've contacted all of them personally, and we've decided to collaborate in interesting and important projects. And more important than this a project can't get. The reason you can't recognize any of them is that they don't work publicly. Some of them are forced to work underground, although many opt to do so in attempt to hide their work. Many of us agree that scientific work should be public, but it's best to keep it hidden from the organizations like Miniknog. We don't want to be accountable of spreading out information that leads to the Apex citizens' suffering."

Zach nodded. He wondered what had led to the hiding of so many scientists. What might've been the event that had taught the lesson of not being spreading their results, if there even had been one? He chose not to ask about it.

"What about the floran one? I've heard about him… they say he is brilliant. What was his name…" Zach wondered, ending up saying his name at the same time Davis did.  
"Greenfinger," they both said as if in chorus.

"No." Davis continued.  
"That's another definite no. I haven't never met, seen, or otherwise communicated with him. I've only heard descriptions of him, and they haven't been exactly… confidence-building. Yes, he is a brilliant mind. But trustworthy, he's not. He seems to be only concerned about things that may aid him in his goals, whatever they are. I don't know much of him, but if you ever meet him, be doubtful. He certainly has some hidden intention. But never mind that! There is a one problem."

He picked a small circular object from his bag. "This is the spare battery I took from the damaged capsule. This capsule's battery is almost dead, so I have to change it soon."

Zach didn't quite understand. "Wait, why is that a problem?"

Davis shook the spare battery. "This battery isn't full either. I'm not sure how long it'll be when we reach a place where I can get a new one of these, so I must maximize the interval by changing them right before the current one runs out. I assume it happens soon after we land on Earth. I can't leave it on ship, so I must take it with me."

"What if you stay on the ship? We can't risk losing the creature." Zach suggested.

"We can't risk getting everyone out of there neither. I must come with you, you need my help. There might be children or elders that cannot walk without help."

Zach wasn't sure of Davis' arguments. The capsule was important to get out of the danger, but in other hand no one really knew what the situation was down on Earth.  
"Alright," Zach agreed. "What do you know about that small… thing?" He asked, pointing to the capsule.

Davis scratched his chin**. **"Not much, honestly. I hadn't much time before the Hole was attacked. I managed to get some results that the folks at Mars got before you stole the creatures. Not much to start with, but I let you know the two most important things; It likes warmth and grows rapidly. Capsule keeps them cold and in a vacuum, which apparently is enough to stop it growing." Davis took out his PC.  
"You should go see others. I try to connect someone on my list to be sure they're ready for our arrival."

Zach stood up and walked to the door. A thought struck him as he grabbed the door handle. "Hey, did you check that capsule? I, um, wonder if there is…"

"A tracking device perhaps?" Davis interrupted him. "No, I checked it after you left my apartment back in the station. I thought there would be one after you said nobody followed. Probably the guards were just occupied at the moment." He smiled as he saw surprised expression in Zach's face.  
"You thought the attackers found us with it? Ah, you are being silly. Perhaps they had a traitor on the station? It doesn't matter, they're all dead now."

Zach laughed wearily. "Yeah. You know me too well. I'll bring you some food."

"Sounds good." Davis replied as Zach left and closed the door.

Zach strolled in the Comet's corridors. He saw Steelclaw, the Glitch they had rescued from the Hole, standing in front of a window, looking the stars in space. When the Glitch heard him approaching, he said: "Declaratory. Glitch don't eat similar food as you organic beings do."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting a Glitch would enter this ship someday." Zach apologized.

"Uncaring. It does not matter. I've learned not to anticipate hospitality from races that do not interact with Glitches often. It's funny how people dismiss our needs sometimes. I am not referring to you now." Steelclaw said, still looking out of the window.  
"Contemplative. Our race is an experiment. A simulation, to be precise. Sometimes we're just thought to be mockups, reflections in a mirror. We Glitches were designed to be bear close similarity to other sentient species. We sleep, we eat, we live and we die. In the end, does that make us different of other races? We had no choice to be different, just like every other race."

Zach stared through the window like the Glitch did. He tried to recognize some constellations, with no avail.  
"I think we all have a choice to be different. Not counting our appearance, even though we can change it too. We are given some certain attributes at birth, but we have the choice how to use them," Zach opposed.  
"We have potential for many things, good and evil. You're right in that we can't choose how much potential is given, but we still have a free will to choose how we use it."

Steelclaw made a robotic, laughing sound. He turned to face Zach, and look at him with his visual sensors. "Amused! A free will? Let me tell you a story, human."  
He didn't wait for Zach's response. "Reminiscing. I once was part of the hivemind. My thoughts were others' thoughts, and others' thoughts were my thoughts. Or, to describe more closely, there weren't thoughts at all. Just unity. I've heard many other races to describe their vision of a hivemind as a chaos, a raging sea of thoughts. It's not like that at all, in a hivemind there is no plural. Everyone helps others, because there is no others at all. It is the perfect society and the greatest intelligence at the same time.

"However, I do not long back to be one with the hivemind again. I was separated forcefully from it by a group of Outcasts, who wanted to see if they could do such thing. Along with many others, I was stunned by the freedom. A possibility to follow my own desires! I did not even know I had such things! I was free to think, and so I thought!

"That day I did realize one thing. I never wanted to be separated from the hivemind. Neither did I want never wanted to be part of it. Yet I accepted it so quickly. There was no choice involved. No free will, no individuality. If such things even exist! I learned I was completely in the grasp of the uncontrollable flow of events! In the control of my own programming! You cannot deny!

"To take it even further, the Glitches who constructed me were in control of their programming, like everyone other Glitch in the universe. It all traces back to the original programming. There always was the one single way the events could have possibly occurred, written in us! You have data flowing in your veins, which you call DNA. We are similar. Even the whole universe follows certain laws! We are all one single unbelievably massive hivemind! Nothing we do can change it."

Zach wasn't sure how to respond to the Glitch's rambling. Steelclaw's logic was sound, but he wanted to protest, _wanted_ to prove there was choices to be made. He sought a hole in his words, but couldn't find one before Glitch continued again.

"Satisfied. There was one thing I learned from the hivemind: A_lways seek your own fortune, do not care about others_. Glitch hivemind is concealed and safe, without any oppression, if we disregard the Outcasts. What one Glitch might do, it doesn't change the hivemind at all. The same principle can be applied to the entire Universe, as they both are similar. You can do anything you please, but the world won't change. Because, after all, whatever you do is the only single possible way events could occur. It is all written to us."

Zach opposed his idea. "Our most important choice is right there. Do we actually care about others and actually believe a change could happen, or will we just go with the flow and opt not to care about anything else but ourselves."

"Pondering. That is debatable. Are we forced to think there is a choice or can we free ourselves from that thought? I'm not sure. What about you? I see one thing from thing from your face: uncertainty. You haven't yet chosen the choice you believe in.

"Based on what you told us about you and your scientist friend, you have been, how did you say it, 'gone with the flow'? You have accepted the events in your life, but never chosen what you want. To stay on Earth, to study in the Academy, to be a thief? You haven't made the choice you live by. Be sure you do your precious choice, before someone else does it."  
After saying that, Steelclaw turned around and marched away to the corridor, leaving Zach stunned by the window.

After looking to the space a while he recognized some of the constellations, what he was satisfied with. It reminded him of his childhood on Earth, where one of his favorite things was looking the starry skies and trying to find constellations and other shapes made by the stars. Suddenly, the ship begun the FTL jump, and instead of the stars he was looking at bright moving lines.  
He decided it was the time to go see others in the kitchen.


	12. Bacon and Melon

Mackney waved his hand as Zach yelled he and Davis would come later. Nathan heard him to mutter that he wouldn't miss them. Nathan wasn't surprised by his grumpiness. The man had just lost his entire fortune! People would cut their limbs to get as much as money and influence he had. Even though, Nathan knew he hadn't lost all of it. He had still loyal men elsewhere in the system, and incredible amount of funds, hidden to secret accounts. Nonetheless he could show some respect to his rescuers.

Nathan himself was a man of honor. He decided to help Davis and Zachary to save their friends out of pure respect. He knew he couldn't have escaped from the Hole without them. It was fair to help them back as a payment for his debt. He could've just refused to do so, but he knew from experience that the honor and mutual respect was the basis of all survival in space. One does not simply survive in the space by their own.

"Silver sssmellsss foodsss!" Silverleaf the Floran exclaimed with a smile on her face. Indeed, around the corner was a door to the kitchen.

Walls were colored bright white and silver, alike the rest of the ship. Design wasn't modern or old-fashioned, but rather unique. It fit to the ship's unordinary origin story, as if the entire ship had popped out of a completely different dimension. It was stylish, at least in the standards of many passenger ships.

"Fresh meatsss. Luckily no running onesss, Floran doesss not feel like hunting." Silver informed as she opened the refrigerator. "Humansss and Apex want meat fried? Floran like meat raw."

Nathan walked to the fridge, and looked in. "Yea, Silver is right. There is meat and… bacon! Who wants bacon? Or eggs! Blimey, can believe they've real eggs here…"

He started to inspect the drawers and cabinets enthusiastically. Steelclaw joined him.

Mackney sat on a chair by the dining table and responded with the usual viciousness in his voice. "I'll take anything that beast hasn't touched yet," Referring to Sliver.

Nathan turned his head to see him, slightly upset of Mackney's persistence with the edgy attitude. "Easy on, mate."

"He's right. Try to behave, Mr. Mackney." Caelia, the apex guard, agreed.

Mackney sneered. "You dare to tell off your employer? Go to hell."

Others saw a blaze igniting in Caelia's eyes. "Old employer," She specified. "I don't see paychecks around here. Or an employment contract, if there's supposed to be one. Do you know what is ironic as hell? Today was the payday." Mackney didn't respond.

Steelclaw picked a green, ovoid object from one of the lockers. "Astonished. What in the _world_ is this?"

The object of course was a watermelon, which was an Earth-based fruit, unknown to most of the other species.

A mischievous glimmer appeared to Mackney's eyes. "Floran! This is how we think your kind!" Mackney jumped off his chair, marched swiftly towards Steelclaw, wrenched the watermelon off his hands, and smashed it to the floor, right next to Silver. Fruit pulp and juices spread all over the shiny white floor. Silver stared the mess expressionless, although one could see also a slight amount of amusement.

Mackney stood in front of her, directly at the other side of the mess, panting heavily, and face bright red as the exposed insides of the watermelon. As the normal color returned to his face he walked back to his chair and sat with a somber face. Nobody said anything or dared to touch the remains of the watermelon in the fear of insulting Silver. Steelclaw walked away to the corridors.

A while later, when Nathan was frying bacon and eggs, Zach walked in to the kitchen and yelled in amazement. "Why is there a watermelon on the floor!?"

Nobody answered, just exchanged few accusatory gazes. "Well, let's eat it then? Silver, do you mind?"

Silver, who was chewing a piece of raw meat by the table accompanied by Caelia and disgusted Mackney, smiled to him. "Sssilverleaf doesssn't mind. It would be ssshame if poor melon go wassste. Melon isss dead." She looked at the mess sorrowfully one last time, before Zach picked up the pieces and cleaned the floor.

Soon enough Zach, Silver, Nathan, Caelia and Mackney were eating bacon, fried eggs and watermelon, among other food products.

"Florans don't eat any vedgies at all, do they?" Nathan asked Silver.

Silver swallowed a big chunk of meat. "Floransss no harm plantsss. Plantsss like us, we like plantsss. If plant dead, we eat, and give new life inssside usss. Never fruitsss, if not stabbed and squished much. Other wissse we plant them to ground and let grow. Some floransss eat other floransss, but I don't want talksss about it. "

"I see. It feels strange you Florans don't eat often any food that has a plant origin. Many of the other races eat meat, though we are made of flesh." Caelia thought out loud, while eating a greasy slice of bacon.

"We can talksss to plantsss," Silver underlined. "Floransss sssenssse what plantsss feel. We see through their eyesss." She waved her hands around, like trying to express something complicated. "We feelsss how all plantsss are one big… thing. Maybe if meatbagsss would feel same about other meatbagsss, they might not eat them?"

"Maybe," Zach joined the conversation. "I think it's all about what we can relate to the most. Florans feel cohesion with other plant life, and humans, apexes can relate easily to animals for example."

"In my opinion," Mackney said, for the great surprise of others. "It doesn't matter at all. Whatever we eat, we do it for survival. We live out of others; it is the greatest law in the Universe. Economy is based on that law. Nothing would work if everyone would go hippie and concentrate trying not to hurt every single small fry we stumble on."

"It should be our own choice, not someone else's. I mean, if we start picking sides, we always end up offending someone. Of course it's always wise to think our current company, insulting them could lead to conflicts. It's so hard to stay polite and be satisfied with yourself these days." Caelia pondered.

"That's true. Sometimes it just feels you always hurt somebody somewhere, no matter what you choose." Zach said, as he left the table. "I must fetch some food for Davis. I'll be back soon." He explained while filling a plate with bacon and watermelon.

Caelia also left the table. "I can take that to him." She offered.

Zach didn't see a problem in it, so he handed the plate to her. "Alright," he accepted. "He should be around cockpit."

Davis examined the information of FTL console carefully when he heard the door open. Taking support from the floor with his feet, he swung the captain's seat round. "Oh, hey. Caelia, if I remember correctly."

The apex smiled. "Yes. Here – some food for you." He gave the plate to him.

"Thanks! Bacon, not half bad."

"Can I sit down?" Caelia asked, pointing the co-pilot's seat.

"No problem."

Caelia looked at the flashing hyperspace outside while Davis ate. She knew FTL travel from around Mars to Earth shouldn't take a long time, so they should arrive in few minutes. After Davis had finished eating, she asked, "This ship is interesting. It's different than other ships I've seen; it's not entirely meant for combat or leisure. How did you get this ship?"

Davis put his empty plate away thinking what he would answer. "Well, I and Zach just found it. The ship had crashed the moon of Earth, without a trace of the previous passengers. We have no idea what it was used for. An advanced piece of technology, abandoned for no clear reason. Peculiarly, the only escape pod ship was still on place."

"Very odd indeed. Sounds like a ghost story; a lone ship drifting through space, without a crew."

Davis smiled to the idea. "Quite so. Well, anyway, the ship wasn't too damaged, so we chose to repair it. It cost money tremendously, but it felt it was the right thing to do. We made it a moving home, which it actually already was for the most part." Davis admired the control panels, screens and consoles in the cockpit. "I think we did a good job. We named it _Comet_, because of its round shape and shining silver hull."

"Yeah. She's beautiful." Caelia admired. "But, what then? You left the Academy Zach told about, right?"

Davis turned serious and spoke with a voice filled sorrow. "Yes. We wanted to be free, but our plan backfired when the party who was funding us cut its support. Our family and friends lost their primary source of money. We tried to fund them in many ways for couple of months, but it didn't work. I had to seek work, but…"

Davis hesitated and hastily searched for a suitable way of expression. "…we made some enemies during our brief adventures and I had tangled to some sketchy business back at the Academy. We had become outlaws, basically. So, we were out of choices and I had to go work at the Hole. Zach didn't get a permanent workplace." Davis' remorseful and quiet voice faded away, as if burden of his past would weigh it down. He fell silent, and turned his gaze to the flashing hyperspace.

"I apologize I asked such a personal thing. I'm sorry." Caelia apologized.

"Nah. It doesn't matter. Actually it feels good to talk about it now, in the light of current events." Davis said, still looking to the outside space. "Can I ask about you? What has taken you here, far from other apex communities?"

Caelia wiped a few hairs off her face. "Miniknog," she told. "Is the source of all evil I've experienced. I lived in a small apex colony on a distant planet with my family. I had the standard toys, standard home, standard food, standard education; a standard life. If the colony had any losses in food or other supplies, like if the supplement shipment was stolen by pirates, we couldn't expect any help from them. For that reason we never were fond of them, really."

Davis noticed how her voice started to sound faltering. "One day, a high officer arrived with many and ordered the citizens to gather in one place. When everyone was present, he read out the "Manifesto #984", which ordered the whole colony to be executed according to the commands of Big Ape himself. Then they opened fire…"

Caelia's voice broke and tears dribbled from her eyes. Davis laid his hand on her shoulder as mark of sympathy. A small light turned on as a sign to indicate the end of the FTL drive.

Caelia pulled herself and continued the story. "Only I had a chance to escape. I ran to the wilds, where I hid for weeks. They sought me, but never found me. One day I ran back to the colony, stole a gun, and hid to a ship. I waited until someone to use the ship. When someone did, I waited for a perfect moment and then killed the entire crew. Since then…" She paused to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "….I've been surviving."

"I understand," said Davis. "We all have had our hardships. We've also been strong enough to get back up from the downfall." Caelia showed her agreement by nodding slightly.

"I know. We have to push through the adversities," She said.

"Now we have another challenge ahead, so better prepare. Let's go to kitchen. We have things to discuss."


	13. The Course of Events

Silver licked all the food scraps off before Nathan washed the dishes. Zach looked at them quickly, pleased of their team spirit. It seemed those two had a good time together. It didn't even surprise him; they both were hunters, other due to his job and other by nature.

Zach concentrated to maintaining his pistol, which was lying on the table. He didn't particularly like the weapon, but still used it as a last resort when cornered. In the battle inside the Hole it had served him as such. It had worked flawlessly as a defense before it had run out of ammo in a critical situation with an avian pirate. Luckily the pirate had the same problem, which had led the situation to be resolved in a particularly epic swordfight in a corridor with messed up gravity. The splendor of the fight was of course his own opinion; the dead pirate would likely describe the situation as a huge disappointment.

Mackney, who was sitting at the table, took a sip from his beer can, and glanced at Zach. He noticed the can was now empty, so he crushed it with his hand, while staring at Zach. "You were in the fight back at the station, weren't you?" He asked from Zach, who turned his attention away from the pistol.

"Yeah, I was. What about that?" He replied, not interested about the subject. He didn't want to think back to old fights very much, especially as violent as the battle in the Hole.

"Do you remember what happened? I do. I was in the control room the whole time."

Zach did remember the events clearly. More clearly he would ever want to. When the asteroid hit the station, he had rushed to the first chamber to prepare for escape, in the case the whole station would be in the danger of breaking down. Due to the inevitable course of events, he couldn't even reach the chamber before the alarm was raised. Everyone was called to the first chamber to protect the Hole against the unknown oppressors. The attackers were outnumbered, but still won the battle. It wasn't only cause of the fact they were trained better, but…

Mackney continued his bitter monologue. "I saw everything from the control room. We had barricades, weapons, pure manpower. But for heaven's sake, we had no integrity!"

Zach had to agree with that. The real reason to the eventual defeat was not the soldiers' skills, but skirmishes between the mercenaries, smugglers and criminals themselves. Many factions and individuals took advantage of the chaos pillaging the storages and settling old grudges. The ensued chaos fed the destruction, and soon blood stained the corridors as the pseudo-soldiers finished the group in the confusion.

"We had all the odds to win the fight," Mackney stated. "Still we lost. You just can't simply trust anyone. Everyone you see might deceive you at some point. Oh, and do you know the worst thing?" At this point he clenched his fist together so tightly his knuckles started to turn white.

"_My_ own servant took _my_ own ship from _my_ private hangar." Mackney said with a voice filled with bitterness and anger. "That chicken just got little scared and chose to fly before the battle even properly started! Even your trusted men leave you…" He squeezed the empty can in his hand.

"I saw the battle more closely than you. When others tried to make up a decent line of defense near the main doors, some went on a rampage. Many took an example of them, and soon the defense was just couple dozen men and some crates and sacks as a cover," Zach told. "The chaos spreads quickly. Maybe just one person was enough to send us towards our demise."

Mackney rubbed his hands and nodded. "Perhaps. By the way, there was this one thing we had back at the station. See, we had these trading rooms in the third chamber. Two parties would go inside the secured room, and trade goods. We monitored the room with cameras and had guards, impartial of course, inside the room to make sure the trade would go as planned. The amount of guards was important; enough to change the tide if other party would attempt a treachery, and so few neither of the parties wouldn't suspect they could take out both of the parties and steal the loot themselves.

"The point here is that the both of the parties could attack us. The trading room is the only place inside the third chamber where guests can have guns. That is the only place someone could start an assault at the heart of our operations. We couldn't accept that possibility, so we made a switch to be used in the case the both parties would attack our guards together. The switch would release nerve gas in the room, killing everyone, including our own reliable guards. Some of us called it the 'Insurance switch'. That's something we would've needed in the Hole in a grand scale. Mechanism to ensure our survival, with a price of a sacrifice"

Zach pondered what he had heard from Mackney. Concept was a little bit brutal in his opinion, but in other hand he had no experience in the subject. "Was the switch ever used?" He asked out of curiosity.

Mackney nodded as an answer, as the kitchen door opened. "Once. I did it." He said, as Davis and Caelia entered the room, Steelclaw behind them.

"Hey," Davis called. "I think we should talk about what happens next, shouldn't we?"

The crew gathered around the table, everyone picking their own chair. Davis set his PC in the center of the table to project a satellite image of the area they are heading to. "Okay, crew," Davis begun. "I connected to our evacuees a while ago. I told them to head towards the abandoned industrial hall." He touched the image gently, and it zoomed to show the hall and its surroundings more closely.

Zach was first to react. "What did they reply?"

Davis didn't say anything, but showed instead. His PC showed a short message: "_We will be there. Everyone is OK. Thank you._" The short message filled Zach with relief, but fear of failure still crept in his mind.

"Who sent it?" Zach asked.

"I don't know. They used some sort of emergency communication device, and the connection was quite horrible." Davis changed the view back to the image, but now accompanied by a simple map of the area. "As you see there is a nice, open area next to the hall. But this isn't the current picture though; the Beast has destroyed the connections or satellite is broken for some reason. The Beast may have caused some seismic activity around there, so what we see here might not resemble the reality at all."

Mackney grunted. "Why do we have to go down there? Doesn't this ship have teleports? You could just beam down."

Davis closed his eyes and shook his head in disapproval. "No, although I admit it could be a possibility. You see, the teleporter need a place to beam us to. The Beast has caused many alterations in the terrain. Earth is now completely uncharted in that matter. Computer could do some calculations, but the terrain is shifting constantly, so I wouldn't want to try it out. We could try overriding the computer and just beam down, but I suppose many of us wouldn't want to end up inside a concrete wall or free-falling down from the 5th floor. Also, we have to count in the most massive tentacles, which are able to reach the altitude from which the beaming down is possible. Beaming up all the people from down there would also take a long time."

Nathan understood the issue quickly. "Alrighty. So, we'll just park the ship nicely next to the hall, eh?"

"I hope it's that simple. But now I want to hear who are coming with us?" Silverleaf, Nathan, Caelia and Steelclaw all responded to Davis' question positively. Only Mackney wanted to stay behind.

"Good," Davis said, delighted with the received help. "I don't expect help from you, Walter. Not to be insulting, but you would only slow us down."

"Thanks. However, good Mr. Wright, do you expect I think you'll just leave me here? I could hijack the ship, ambush you when you return, or do something else as malevolent. I suppose you've thought that, too."

Davis leaned back to his chair and chuckled. "Of course. You'll just sit here. The ship is protected by a password only I and Zach know. There is no sense you to hold only people that know the code at the gunpoint. I know you can break doors and pick locks, but hijacking a ship is too much for you. Don't think this ship isn't protected."

Mackney smiled and nodded towards Davis as a sign of respect; derisively or not, Zach couldn't quite figure out. "I see, I see. However, let's all envision a scenario, where you all or just these two," Mackney said while pointing to Zach and Davis with his hands, "die a horrible, sudden death. What will happen? We're all trapped down there, just waiting to be crushed, eh? Do you have a backup plan at all?"

"Yes, I think so." Davis said, pointing to his PC. "I can send the code as a message to here if we are in an imminent danger. Also, the code is simple enough to yell quickly. In that scenario, the survivors would return back to the ship and use the code instead. Does it sound good?" Davis indicated he directed his question to everyone by looking at all members of the crew quickly.

"I see some flaws, but it is okay. Go, quickly, or I'll get angry again." Mackney accepted, seemingly little irritated about the whole rescue operation.

Davis rose up from his chair and looked at the crew, managing to look inquiring and enthusiastic at the same time. "Shall we go?"

"Ye!"

"Let'sss go!"

"Tense. We shall."

"Let's go ahead."

The tension, which had been hiding in Zach's mind, now sprung up. It wasn't clearly fear, excitement or anticipation. He did now realize they were indeed going down there; on the dying Earth to save their families. Nothing else mattered anymore but the mission. He was ready.

"Yeah. We're going."


	14. The Desolation of Earth

Zach led the crew to the arms depot, while Davis prepared to pilot the ship down to the surface of Earth. The 'arms depot' was in fact a rather cramped room filled with all sorts of weaponry. Much of it had come with the ship, Zach's pistol for instance. Davis had found the grenades from the ruins of the ship, some of which he had taken himself when he moved to work in the Hole. The grenades had shown their usefulness back at the Hole. Zach liked to use smoke grenades often, as they didn't cause as much harm as the other ones. He, however, despised the fire grenades. They were very destructive, but also designed poorly; it was likely that the user got killed, too. Suicide weapon, virtually.

They might have a battle ahead, so they prepared well. They didn't take any food or much medical supplies, to reduce the weight they had to carry, thus making moving easier and faster. Evacuees may have some injuries, but the ship would be close so they could help the injured to the ship for better treatment. Zach still took few bandages, just in case there was injuries.

Unlike others, Silver refused to take anything else than melee weapons, and her only addition to the knives she took from Davis' apartment was a unique combination of sword and spear. She handled it with confidence. According to her, Florans used spears in hunting. And this certainly was the hunt of the century.

Davis' voice from the speakers interrupted their rearmament session briefly. "It seems we can't land next to the hall. There are just ruins everywhere. I'll just land to a nearby square, which seems quite clear. Walking time should be about ten minutes." This, of course, was a major setback. Getting to the hall and back again could take even up to half an hour. Zach knew this, and others did too, but everyone accepted it with a fraught silence.

Soon after that Davis called another time, informing they have landed successfully. That, and the fact Davis didn't detect any tentacles in the surrounding areas, was good news, if anything.

As they were leaving the storeroom, Zach gave a glance to others' equipment. Nathan and Caelia didn't seem change their weaponry very much, as they had guns previously. Steelclaw, who was weaponless, took a shotgun and a handgun. Zach, before leaving, took few grenades. _Maybe these come in handy_, he thought. _As long as they're not fire-type_.

Davis and Mackney joined them when they arrived to the main storage room, where the exit ramp was also located. "Hey," Davis said to draw attention. "The terrain is pretty rough, but we should be able to traverse it by foot. The Beast has its attention elsewhere, so we should be pretty safe." He walked to the control panel nearby, and set the ramp to open.

While the ramp opened, Davis walked next to Zach who was standing behind the crew. "You took the capsule?" Zach asked while others expectantly watched the exit to open.

"Yeah," Davis confirmed.

"Note me when you need to change the battery."

The open ramp revealed a barren, dusty landscape. The concrete paving of the square had cracks and crevices. The surrounding buildings and trees had collapsed and fallen over, creating a post-apocalyptic atmosphere in the old humble plaza. Dust and ash from the destruction had settled, coating every surface with grey. Most dramatic sight was the violent terraforming the Beast had caused. The square and its surroundings were slightly tilted. The ground was almost flat near the ship, but it slowly curved upwards, making the end of the square they were facing the top of a massive, high hill with one single ruinous building at the top.

The group walked out of the ship, looking at the unimaginable destruction. Zach remembered this area from his youth. The folk had used this square sometimes as a marketplace. Many festivals were kept here, he remembered colors and lights. It wasn't fancy in the middle class standards, but it was an important part of life around here.

Now it all was grey, desolate and filled with almost tangible sorrow. He saw holes in the ground; missed artillery shots. And few blood stains. The Beast had taken it all. Everything anyone had, or could ever have. Luckily, no bodies were visible. Either the people got away in time, or were captured and eaten by the Beast.

"Good luck," They heard Mackney yell behind the closing door. "Don't die too much!"

The crew made their way up the hill in a quick pace. The ascension wasn't extremely steep, but steep enough to keep them away from running. The industrial hall would be at other side of the hill, if Zach recalled correctly. He remembered the hall too; it had been abandoned since ever, but it had never been demolished or anything. It had been used as food storage in the years they had a good harvest.

They made their way at the ruined building at the top in less than six minutes. From there they saw their surroundings: ruined buildings to every direction. Even the hall was visible ahead, surrounded with buildings in various states of destruction. The city continued almost unified to the horizon. In distance they could see higher buildings, even skyscrapers. Zach knew there was the nearest spaceport. In situation like this the travel by foot would take hours, clearly much after the evacuation ships would've left.

Indeed, they saw a massive carrier ship attempting to leave Earth, floating high above the spaceport. It would've been a simple task, unless there'd be a gigantic tentacle trying to grasp it. The tentacle was over hundreds of times larger than the ship itself. They saw other tentacles trying the same thing, although they were lot smaller; only double the size of nearby skyscrapers. Small flashes could be seen around them as the artillery and fighters tried to aid the carrier. The crew didn't stop do follow the fateful struggle.

Below them, between the hill and their destination was a pile of stone rubble and other trash that had fallen down the hill as the ground had elevated. The pile was full of sharp metal objects and dangerous pits; tripping down in there would likely result to being impaled by a metal rod.

Davis tapped Zach's shoulder twice, before they begun descending. Zach turned around to face puffing and pale Davis. "This physical stuff isn't quite for me, I'll rest here." Davis said, meaning the lone, ruined house top of the hill. "I can see you from here. I'll come after you soon." With a more quiet voice he said to Zach: "Batteries are low."

Zach nodded with agreement, but looked at Davis concerned. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Go fast; we gotta get out of here."

Zach headed down with the others, to whom he told Davis was exhausted and would come after them. "That ol' lab rat," commented Nathan.  
They headed downwards, which felt much easier than the first portion of the journey. The pile of rubble wasn't as dangerous as they had thought; instead sloped gently down, making the travel easier. As they reached the part of the city in better condition, they started to see footprints on the streets, which increased as they got closer to the industrial hall.

The group stopped when they reached the vicinity of the hall. The hall was long and tall, capable of storing many supplies. Caelia eyed the hall and asked: "Where is the entrance?"

Zach pointed at the high concrete building in connection with the hall. "The only entrance is through that guard tower. Other doors are permanently sealed."

Zach leading, they entered the tower. First thing they detected was the smell; a rotten, horrible smell that could make anyone sick. A stench of death. Frightened, Zach rushed to the hall, and found nothing. Not a single person was there; only, the wet, rotten smell – and stains of blood. The floor had sunken deeper to the ground, and in the far end of the hall was a huge opening to the bowels of Earth.

Zach cried out in horror. He rushed to the crack and took his flashlight. He pointed the light down to the abyss, but saw nothing but darkness and shadows. He fell on his knees, eyes filled with the tears of grief. He sobbed there for a moment, which length he had no awareness. Few seconds or ten minutes, it didn't matter anymore.  
_TOO LATE!? HOW!? NO!_

He heard others' shouts behind him. They wanted to tell something, but it didn't matter to him. Until the realization suddenly struck him in the face.  
_The flashlight– – !_

The entire hall trembled. Zach tried to get back on his feet but didn't seem to have power to stand up. All of a sudden, Silver shrieked in fear. Almost immediately, her shriek got buried under another one. A loud, hellish growl echoed from the depths.

Dozens of slimy tentacles charged up from the abyss.


	15. Your Precious Choice

Zach couldn't gain balance. His attempts in standing up failed, so he used his hands and legs to crawl backwards, away from the massive crack and the Beast's tentacles. The fleshy tendrils explored the floor and walls around the crack, one barely touching Zach's foot. The Beast instantly sensed him and the tentacle rose up trying to smash him, but Nathan's precise shot directed to its tip startled it. The limbs withdrew a bit, preparing to counterattack.

Silver had already dashed towards Zach. She grabbed him, and dragged him up to his feet. Zach stumbled after her, trying to get some distance between them and the Beast. The Beast made few attacks towards them, but couldn't reach them thanks to the cover fire Caelia, Nathan and Steelclaw gave. Tentacles sensed them based on the heat they emitted, or something else; it wasn't relevant to them at the moment.

The Beast struck back. The tentacles approached again, this time with great speed and power. They formed a wall, forcing the crew to back out. "Distressed. Secure the door!" Steelclaw shouted, as the tentacles drew near. As if the Beast knew their intention, it quickly blocked the exit with its two huge tentacles. The Beast separated the crew from each other with the tentacle wall, and drove them to two different corners; Zach, Silver and Nathan in one, Steelclaw and Caelia in other.

Zach lost the sight of Steelclaw and Caelia. He had no time to wonder how to break through the barrier of tentacles before the Beast attacked them again. They had no space to do anything else but shoot with their weapons, trying to keep up their defense. A larger tentacle attempted to crush them, but Silver stabbed it with her spear. The spear got stuck deep to the creature's flesh, preventing it from escaping. Instead, it chose to try crushing the spear down, breaking it or alternatively forcing Silver to abandon it. Silver pushed upwards against the tentacle, trying to keep it away. She was strong, but the Beast was more powerful. "Help!" She cried. Zach grabbed the spear, and helped her. Nevertheless, the Beast would eventually win the struggle. Then Zach remembered the grenades he had. In despair, he threw one of them up, towards the tentacles. It fell somewhere among them.

The explosion of the plasma grenade wasn't big, but forceful instead. The tentacles, which were mostly thin and agile sort, didn't have much resistance against powerful explosions. The tentacles blew up, spreading severed tentacles and flesh bits in the room. The beast retreated towards the abyss again, removing the wall between the crew members.

"Here!" shouted Zach to Caelia and Steelclaw. He used another grenade, throwing it against the tentacles covering the exit. The tentacle remains flew off, even some bits raining on them. They rushed towards the exit, as the tentacle monster prepared for one last attack; it didn't want to let its prey escape. Zach fired towards the tentacles, but one managed to his plasma rifle. The gun flew off, but he didn't go for it. He still had his trusty pistol.

Zach had already got to the other side of the door, when a tentacle swept Steelclaw and Caelia over behind him. Steelclaw dropped his guns, and couldn't reach them before several tentacles blocked the way. The tentacle attacked again but Zach pulled out his gleaming sword. He pointed against the tentacle, and as it attacked, it impaled itself to the sword with the force of its own strike. The beast tried to pull the injured limb back, but Zach's grip of the sword was tough. He heaved the sword to the opposite direction as the tentacle tried to escape, slicing the tentacle in half all the way to its head, freeing the sword. The ran out of the hall as the Beast growled ferociously.

Outside, Zach stopped to look back to the hall. It didn't seem that the Beast could attack them anymore, but he wasn't entirely sure. After all, he suspected that the creature had parts almost everywhere, hidden deep underground. He put his weapons away, as he didn't need them any longer.

As he was turning around to continue their escape, he briefly glanced at the horizon. He saw the huge carrier they had seen earlier to be destroyed in a massive explosion. The massive tentacle was damaged too, but even the explosion wasn't enough to harm it properly. The fiery explosion rained fire, and destroyed many smaller ships along.

Seconds after the sound of explosion arrived, sounding like a long sequence of lightning strikes. Then the blast wave hit the ruins around them. It wasn't powerful, more like a strong wind. It whirled up the dust and ash, creating grey clouds around them.

Caelia looked at the massive tentacles in the distance concerned. "We should move. There isn't anything for us anymore."

Zach looked back to the crew, away from the ruinous industrial hall. "You're right. Let's run."

They hurried back towards their ship, determined to get away as soon as possible. They worked their way back up the hill. They saw objects falling from the sky; melted pieces of metal, stone and tentacle flesh from the explosion. The ground shook as the Beast moved its limbs above and under the ground.

Nathan made his way to the top fastest, while others still had some climbing left. He entered the building, but shortly returned to tell them to hurry. "Pondering. What it might be?" Steelclaw wondered. They ran up the hill doubling their speed.

They entered the ruined building, which had lost parts of wall and ceiling in the destruction. Otherwise, the house was very poor, having only one square-shaped room in the first floor. It was completely constructed of concrete. Walls, floor and ceiling were mostly empty, only few bowls and fruits littered the floor. Davis sat on the floor, back against one of the walls.

He was pale and looking sick. Next to him on the ground he had the capsule with the creature inside and his PC. He stared at the crew coming in to the room, coughing. Zach saw blood dribs on his dirty lab coat; he had been coughing blood.

Zach rushed to him. Before he could say anything, Davis greeted them. "Hey," he said with a fragile voice. He tried to look if anyone else had come with them, but didn't see anyone else. "We were too late, weren't we?" He asked, coughing afterwards.

"Yes. They were gone." Zach answered. "What has happened?"

Davis chuckled shortly, which led to even more coughing. He wiped the blood from his hand to his coat. "I think they got rid of me after all. Remember those broken capsules? Other creature had been killed by lasers–" He stopped to cough once again. "–and other capsule had just been cracked. I think I got the creature."

Zach's eyes widened in terror. "You mean inside you!?"

Davis nodded. "Yeah. I can feel it, living inside me. Or maybe dying. I'm not sure. Zach, I'm going to die. It's has spread too much. We can't do anything."

"Anything? Isn't there anything we can do?"

Davis was seemingly delighted of the question. "Oh, of course. Take these," he said as he handed the capsule and his PC. "Take these. My PC has all the information you need. I want you to do all you can to stop that monster." He said, referring to the Beast attacking Earth. He stared intensively to Zach's eyes and spoke. "Home is gone. You can't save the Earth. Even if you'd kill the Beast, there is nothing left but ruins. No, do everything to prevent this from reoccurring. We can't let other races to lose their homes too. Zachary, can you promise me that? Can you promise?"

Zach looked back at him. "I promise."

"Thanks." He said wearily. Davis turned his gaze away. He looked through a crack in the building's wall, to the horizon over the grey sea of ruin and destruction. "I think… I think it's enough for me. Good luck, friends." He uttered. "Now, I can just say it was fun as long as it lasted." Then he fell silent, and breathed for the last time. Then he was no more.

Zach closed his eyes.

The crew stood there a moment in complete silence. Suddenly, the ground shook greater than ever before. Even the building crumbled more, pieces falling from the ceiling. They agreed to leave, and head for the ship in haste.

And so they ran.


	16. Insurance Switch

From the hill they saw the Comet, shining in the otherwise grey and dull landscape. From their right side, directly from west, an incredibly loud rumbling noise sounded. Landmasses moved aside when a huge tentacle arose beneath the ruins in distance. Ground trembled, and tilted as the tentacle begun to rise up. They had no time to lose, since it was only matter of time before the tentacle would crush them too.

While running downhill, Zach put Davis' PC to his pocket, and attached the container with the creature to his belt. Nathan had already got way ahead. Caelia was running in front of Silver, Zach and Steelclaw few steps behind them. Descending the hill was quick, but they constantly had to watch their step. Tripping over could result to serious injuries.

All of a sudden, Zach felt something hard hitting his head from behind. As the result of the blow he tumbled down, instinctively hands ahead. His arms scratched against the rough ground. Impact blurred his vision for a second. He could hear Silver shouting in surprise.

As he was trying to get up, both vision and mind still blurred, he could feel somebody taking his pistol off his belt. He tried to stop the person, but his hand grabbed air. When he regained his senses, he saw Steelclaw hitting surprised Silver to face with his pistol's grip, and then quickly bending her hands behind her back. Zach got up, ready to draw his sword, but paused as Steelclaw pointed the pistol at Silver's head.

"Dead serious. Do not move an inch or the floran dies." The glitch said, while holding Silver in front of him, her hands locked. "Same goes for the apex." Zach noticed that Caelia was indeed at the other side of Steelclaw and Silver, pointing at the glitch with her plasma rifle. "Do not think I can't finish the floran if you attempt shooting."

Zach was stunned of the sudden turn of events. He couldn't fathom that Steelclaw could achieve with this. "What are you doing!? We're going to die!" He simply shouted.

"Declaratory. Yes, in fact, we are. Unless you tell me the code, that is." Steelclaw explained. "You are the only one who knows it, since your scientist friend is now dead."

Zach was still completely stunned of his treachery. "Don't do this. You can't–"

"Inquiring. You still doubt me?" Steelclaw quickly glanced behind himself, looking to Caelia. Then, he turned the pistol towards her, over his own shoulder, and shot. The shot hit her below her right shoulder, near the place where humans have their heart. She collapsed and dropped her rifle. All that happened in a blink of an eye.

Zach looked at Caelia's body rolling down the hill. The shot had been severe, but she should still be alive. He must get her back to the Comet soon as possible. Nathan hadn't seen what had happened, but had stopped running and looked towards them. He was too far away to help. Zach had to figure out a way to get out of the situation, without harming himself or Silver fatally.

To get more time to think, he asked Steelclaw: "Why are you doing this? What are you trying to do?"

For his luck, the glitch fell for the trap. "Explanatory. For the wealth, of course. We have the star system's most wanted man on that ship; Walter Mackney, _the_ crime lord. He will pay to get free; he will give me anything to avoid the law.

"I'm sorry we came to this, but you weren't supposed to survive in the first place. We had a plan, me and my late confederates. We traded the Hole's location with a group of radical law idolaters for Mackney and our survival from the bloodshed. We spread rumors and lies about upcoming 'false alarms' to ensure confusion and the downfall of the Hole. But what do we get!? Betrayal from the foolish extremists! They killed everyone, but me! Forbid our escape, left me to seek anything that could get me out of that hell!

"Do not pretend you do not understand me, human. It is only pure survival, the only way we can prevail, written deep in us! I warned you, out of pure kindness. I said you must choose, before someone else would do the choice for you. Do it now! Choose, before I have to make the choice for you!"

The glitch spoke while the massive tentacle moved towards them. They would have barely few minutes before it would crush the very ground beneath their feet. I have to do something, quick. _The glitch is right; I must make a choice…_

Then he noticed Silver's hand. While Steelclaw had been thrilled by his speech, she had moved her hand closer to her knife which hanged on a rope attached to her clothes. She looked at Zach, signaling to him she was going to do something. Zach tensed in fear and hopelessness, as he couldn't have any effect what would happen next.

Suddenly, Silver wrenched her hands off from Steelclaw's grip, instantly hitting the glitch with her right elbow. With the same hand, she grabbed the knife and swung it towards surprised Steelclaw's hand, where the pistol was, trying to knock the gun away. Instead, the knife hit between the glitch's forearm and the metal panel shielding it. Her strike was so powerful the panel flew off, but the glitch still had the pistol and prepared to shoot.

Zach, at the same time, had barely time to react to the events that happened in mere seconds. He had no time to pull his sword or run and tackle Steelclaw, so he did the only thing he had left; he threw the capsule to ruin Steelclaw's aim. In to this throw he poured all of his grief, desperation and sorrow he had experienced in the past hours. The Hole, Earth, his family, Davis; he couldn't lose Silver or Caelia as well.

The capsule hit Steelclaw's head hard. It crushed the right side of his head, damaging it notably. His right-side visual receptor, his electronic eye, broke completely. He fell down backwards and rolled down the hill, away from them. However, Zach was too slow; the glitch had the time to pull the trigger. The shot hit Silverleaf.

Zach rushed to her, but the shot had been lethal. It had hit exactly between her eyes. Trying to put aside his grief, Zach rushed to Caelia, who lay in a puddle of blood. She was still alive, since Zach felt her pulse. Zach quickly grabbed the capsule, creature still alive inside, and dragged Caelia down the hill in a rush, trying to escape the impending doom. Luckily the surface was mostly flat, so he wouldn't have to carry Caelia.

"Aerolithology!" He shouted to Nathan, who had been attempting to run back up towards them. "Aerolithology is the code! Start the ship!" Nathan turned around and headed to the ship.

As the massive tentacle drew closer, Zach thought was sure the Beast was doing it just because of them. After all, they were only a small group who had driven it off. It surely was furious of its unexpected defeat in the industrial hall.

A shot barely missed Zach and unconscious Caelia. He looked back up the hill, and saw Steelclaw chasing them, closing up. More shots were fired, but the glitch couldn't aim correctly due to the loss of one eye. Zach saw Nathan arrive to the ship. The ramp opened, presumably opened by Mackney, who must've seen something was wrong.

The ground moved. It started to tilt to left and raise high above the other ruins. The tentacle rose up even higher, crushing ruins between itself and the raised landmass. As Zach approached the Comet he saw Mackney standing inside, his pistol ready. _Nathan must've informed him_, Zach deduced.

"Closed the ramp!" Zach shouted. Mackney reacted instantly, dashing to the control panel as fast as he could with his walking stick.

One of Steelclaw's shots hit. It pierced through Zach's left knee, making him to lurch and yell in pain. He pulled himself together and dragged Caelia over the edge of the ramp and little farther, before collapsing to the ship's floor, blood pouring from his leg.

Mackney aimed for the glitch's head, but missed. The result wasn't half bad either; the shot hit the pistol in Steelclaw's hand, unarming him. At the same time, the ground reached a critical angle and the ship begun to slide on the concrete below it. Steelclaw, as his last attempt to survive, jumped between the closing ramp and the ceiling and jammed it with his right forearm using it as a support to prevent it from closing.

Zach heard the ship's engines charging up. Nathan had managed to start the ship, but the question was now: could he fly it? The Comet slid faster as the tentacle increased the angle of the landmass. The edge of the elevated landmass was high above the surrounding ground, and the tentacle pushed it even higher.

Just as the ship passed the edge, the Comet begun to ascend. Mackney attempted to finish off Steelclaw, but he collapsed as he lost his balance and tripped over. Zach took balance from the wall of the ship, rising up despite his injuries. He pulled his sword out, and dashed towards the glitch still hanging on the ship. He struck his shining sword through the glitch's forearm. Already missing the panel to protect it, the sword went through the hand, weakening it. Zach pulled the sword out, noticing the sword had taken a lot of damage; it was twisted and broken, lost its old sharpness.

Weakened by the hit, Steelclaw's hand broke in the pressure the closing ramp created. "One… single… way…" Steelclaw uttered, before the hand got crushed. The glitch fell down, towards the ground far below the Comet.

Nathan steered the ship away from the tentacles. They were safe. However, Zach couldn't rest and give space to his feelings, not yet. With Mackney, he carried still unconscious Caelia towards the med bay.

He left the capsule to the storage room. The creature inside moved, as if waking up from an age-long dream. The capsule lay on the floor, without anyone thinking about it. The capsule lay on the floor, with a big, open crack in the glass cover.

Without anyone knowing of its existence


	17. Epilogue: A Journey Begins

_Remember?_

My name is Zachary. I'm alone on a ship. I have no hope.

_Let's try that again._

_My name is Zachary. All my friends are dead. A tentacle monster killed them on-board, and it was my fault. I have a ship, money and I'm alive. I have almost no hope. I have no destination._

_One more time. Look at the positive sides._

_My name is Zachary. All my friends have been killed by a tentacle monster I brought aboard. It killed and ate Caelia and Mackney. Nathan sacrificed himself to get it out of the ship. I couldn't see it coming, and I only meant good. It wasn't my fault entirely. I have a ship, money, and food. I'm alive and I can use my leg. But, the most importantly, I have a destination, a mission. A purpose. Hope._

_That's a lot better. Acceptance is the first step, you know.  
Do you think this had a purpose?_

_I'm not sure._

_That's okay.  
Do you think this was destined to happen?_

_I'm not sure. Sorry._

_No, no, it's good. You don't have all the answers.  
Alright, all seems good about you. Oh, by the way, do you have a plan?_

_Kind of. I'll hide the Comet somewhere, and buy a new ship. This one has too many bad memories. Too much lost hope. After that… well… Just wander around, maybe?_

_Good, a goal makes good for you. Wait, you have done your choice, haven't you?_

_I keep my promises. You don't make the promises for other people, but yourself. I still have his PC. It'll help._

_I'm proud of you. It's settled then?_

_Yes. I have made my choice._

* * *

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